Overexpression of the pro-protein convertase furin predicts prognosis and promotes papillary thyroid carcinoma progression and metastasis through RAF/MEK signaling

Furin belongs to the pro-protein convertases (PCs) family and its aberrant expression has been documented in various types of cancers; however, its role in thyroid cancer remains unclear. We investigated the expression of furin in a large cohort of Middle Eastern papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patient samples and explored its functional role and mechanism in PTC cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Furin overexpression was observed in 44.6% of all PTC cases and was significantly associated with aggressive clinicopathological parameters and poor outcomes. We show that the knockdown of FURIN suppresses tumor growth, proliferation, migration, invasion, spheroid growth, and progression of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase (BRAF) mutant cells, whereas its overexpression in BRAF wild-type PTC cell lines reversed the effect. FURIN knockdown in the BRAF mutant cell line led to reduced tumor growth and increased apoptosis. Mechanistically, FURIN knockdown led to MEK/ERK pathway suppression in BRAF mutant cells, although inhibition of MEK did not affect furin expression, which suggests that furin acts through the MEK/ERK pathway. Furthermore, our study revealed the synergistic antitumor effect of furin depletion and anti-MEK inhibitor treatment. Overall, these results indicate that furin is an important prognostic marker in Middle Eastern PTC and that it plays a crucial role in BRAF-associated MAP/ERK pathway activation and tumorigenesis. Furin inhibition could be a potential therapeutic target for aggressive PTC.

Automated summary

This study investigated the expression and functional role of furin in Middle Eastern papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Furin overexpression was observed in 44.6% of PTC cases and was associated with aggressive clinicopathological parameters and poor outcomes. Knockdown of FURIN suppressed tumor growth, migration, invasion, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in BRAF mutant cells, while overexpression of FURIN reversed these effects in BRAF wild-type cells. FURIN inhibition showed a synergistic antitumor effect with anti-MEK inhibitor treatment.