Snail-1 Overexpression Correlates with Metastatic Phenotype in BRAFV600E Positive Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

Katarzyna Wieczorek-Szukala; Janusz Kopczynski; Aldona Kowalska; Andrzej Lewinski

doi:10.3390/jcm9092701

Snail-1 Overexpression Correlates with Metastatic Phenotype in BRAF^V600E Positive Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

J Clin Med. 2020 Aug 21;9(9):2701. doi: 10.3390/jcm9092701.

Authors

Katarzyna Wieczorek-Szukala¹, Janusz Kopczynski², Aldona Kowalska^{3

4}, Andrzej Lewinski¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, Medical University of Lodz, 93-338 Lodz, Poland.
² Department of Pathology, Holy Cross Cancer Center, 25-734 Kielce, Poland.
³ Endocrinology Clinic, Holy Cross Cancer Center, 25-734 Kielce, Poland.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-319 Kielce, Poland.

Abstract

The ability of cancer to metastasize is regulated by various signaling pathways, including transforming growth factor β (TGFβ), also implicated in the upregulation of Snail-1 transcription factor in malignant neoplasms. B-type Raf kinase gene (BRAF)^V600E, the most common driving mutation in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), induces epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in thyroid cancer cells through changes in the Snail-1 level, increasing cell migration and invasion. However, little is known about the mechanism of Snail-1 and BRAF^V600E relations in humans. Our study included 61 PTC patients with evaluated BRAF^V600E mutation status. A total of 18 of those patients had lymph node metastases-of whom 10 were BRAF^V600E positive, and 8 negative. Our findings indicate that the expression of Snail-1, but not TGFβ1, correlates with the metastatic phenotype in PTC. This is the first piece of evidence that the upregulation of Snail-1 corresponds with the presence of BRAF^V600E mutation and increased expression of Snail-1 in metastatic PTC samples is dependent on BRAF^V600E mutation status.

Keywords: BRAFV600E; PTC; Snail-1; metastasis; thyroid.