USP4-mediated CENPF deubiquitylation regulated tumor metastasis in colorectal cancer

Abstract

Metastasis is a major challenge for colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment. Here, we uncovered CENPF may be involved in CRC metastasis through bioinformatics mining and small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeted functional screening. We observed CENPF expression was preferentially increased in CRC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. More importantly, multicenter cohort study identified upregulated CENPF expression was significantly correlated with poor survival in CRC. Knockdown of CENPF inhibited CRC cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Intriguingly, we found CENPF undergoes degradation in CRC via the ubiquitination-proteasome pathway. Mechanistically, we observed that USP4 interacted with and stabilized CENPF via deubiquitination. Furthermore, USP4-mediated CENPF upregulation was critical regulators of metastasis of CRC. Examination of clinical samples confirmed that USP4 expression positively correlates with CENPF protein expression, but not mRNA transcript levels. Taken together, this study describes a novel USP4-CENPF signaling axis which is crucial for CRC metastasis, potentially serving as a therapeutic target and a promising prognostic biomarker for CRC.