Aberrant expression of nuclear prothymosin α contributes to epithelial-mesenchymal transition in lung cancer.

ABSTRACT: Elevated expression of prothymosin α (ProT) is frequently observed in cancers, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we report the clinical relevance of ProT expression and its correlation with lung cancer progression. We have shown that ProT was highly expressed in early-stage lung cancer, exhibiting nuclear localization; on the contrary, a loss of nuclear ProT expression was detected in late-stage tumor specimens. Furthermore, the expression of nuclear ProT impaired lung cancer cell migration, suppressed TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated transcription factor expression, and inhibited in vivo tumor metastasis. The suppressive effect of ProT was further found to trigger Smad7 acetylation-dependent deregulation of TGF-β sig

SUBMITTER: Chen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12420368 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature