ZXDC enhances cervical cancer metastasis through IGF2BP3-mediated activation of RhoA/ ROCK signaling

Yifang Mao; Xingyu Jiang; Peng Guo; Ying Ouyang; Xiangfu Chen; Meng Xia; Lixin Wu; Zihao Tang; Tianyi Liang; Yue Li; Mian He

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107447

ZXDC enhances cervical cancer metastasis through IGF2BP3-mediated activation of RhoA/ ROCK signaling

iScience. 2023 Jul 20;26(8):107447. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107447. eCollection 2023 Aug 18.

Authors

Yifang Mao¹, Xingyu Jiang², Peng Guo¹, Ying Ouyang², Xiangfu Chen², Meng Xia¹, Lixin Wu¹, Zihao Tang¹, Tianyi Liang¹, Yue Li², Mian He¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
² Department of Experimental Research, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China.

Abstract

Metastasis in cervical cancer (CC) has a significant negative impact on patient survival, highlighting the urgent need for investigation in this area. In this study, we identified significant overexpression of zinc finger, X-linked, duplicated family member C (ZXDC) in CC tissue with metastasis, which correlates with poor outcomes for CC patients. We observed that overexpression of ZXDC promotes, while silencing of ZXDC inhibits the metastasis of CC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, our research demonstrated that ZXDC activated RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway, leading to enhanced cytoskeleton remodeling in CC cells. Besides, we found that IGF2BP3 plays an essential role in the activation of ZXDC on the RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway by stabilizing RhoA mRNA. These findings reveal a mechanism whereby ZXDC promotes the cervical cancer metastasis by targeting IGF2BP3/RhoA/ROCK pathway.

Keywords: Cancer; Molecular biology; Omics; Transcriptomics.