Role of RhoA-GTPases activator, GEF-H1, in thyroid cancer

PEROS I.; FERNANDEZ CHAVEZ L; ALONSO E.G.; CARBALLIDO J.A.; GANDINI N.A.; MASCARO M.; PICHEL P.; RECIO S.; CURINO A. C.; FACCHINETTI M.M.; COLO G.P.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; LXV REUNIÓN ANUAL DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE INVESTIGACIÓN CLÍNICA (SAIC); 2020

SAIC

GEF-H1 is a Rho-GTPases activator whose overexpression hasbeen shown to be associated with tumor development. However,its role in thyroid cancer (TC) progression has not yet been studied. TC has been dramatically rising worldwide in recent decadesand represents the most prevalent endocrine malignancy. For thisreason, we have begun analyzing GEF-H1 expression in humanthyroid biopsies. We observed higher cytoplasmic protein concentration when comparing by immunohistochemistry tumor tissue (TT)with non-malignant tissue (NMT) (n=52; p=0.0003). Similar resultswere obtained by Western blot in thyroid biopsies and cancer celllines. Furthermore, clinical-histopathological data showed significant GEF-H1 overexpression in TT than NMT (p=7E-07), which correlates with a less patient survival (p=0.0088). mRNA data analysisfrom biopsies (Human Protein Atlas and Oncomine platforms) alsoshowed a significant GEF-H1 overexpression in TT compared withNMT. Analyzing Gene Expression Omnibus microarray data with Rlanguage, we observed that GEF-H1 is between 2-17% of the mostexpressed genes in different TC histotypes. We also determined thatGEF-H1 expression is significantly higher in papillary and anaplastic carcinomas than NMT (p