Increased expression of GEF-H1 in thyroid cancer promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion

LUCÍA FERNANDEZ CHAVEZ; BERMUDEZ VICENTE; ARENAL V; EXEQUIEL ALONSO; SCHWEITZER K; PICHEL P; SERGIO RECIO; FERRONATO MARIA JULIA; FERMENTO MARIA EUGENIA; ALONSO ELIANA NOELIA; MATEO N CAMPOS HAEDO; ROSEMBLIT C; MARIA MARTA FACCHINETTI; ALEJANDRO CARLOS CURINO; GEORGINA PAMELA COLO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Biociencias SAIC, SAB, AACYTAL; 2023

SAIC, SAB, AACYTAL

RhoGTPases family is involved in several biological process including gene transcription, cell polarity, migration, and invasion. RhoGTPases switch between on and off states and are regulated by severalGEFs (activators) and GAPs/RhoGDIs (inactivators). We identified aGEF-H1 as one of the main activators of RhoA. In addition, we haveobserved that GEF-H1 is involved in cell proliferation, cytoskeletonremodelling, cell migration and invasion, as well as in breast tumordevelopment and metastasis. Rho GTPases contribute to tumor initiation and progression, however, the role of RhoA activators hasnot yet been study in thyroid cancer (TC). Hence, the aim of thiswork is to study the role of GEF-H1 in TC development. TC is themost prevalent endocrine neoplasia and the main cause of death isthe metastasis. By bioinformatics analysis we found GEF-H1 mRNAand protein overexpressed in tumoral thyroid tissue (TT) comparedwith non-tumoral tissue (NT). In addition, the expression of GEF-H1was significantly higher in papillary and anaplastic thyroid carcinomas than in NT (p