HOXA9 orchestrates EMT and metastasis in oral cancer via transcriptional activation of vimentin and β-catenin signaling - PubMed
7 hours ago
- #Oral Cancer Metastasis
- #HOXA9
- #EMT Signaling
- HOXA9 is upregulated in oral cancer samples with lymph node-positive stage and higher histological grade.
- Knockdown of HOXA9 impairs proliferation, migration, invasion, promotes apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and reduces tumor volume and lung metastasis in mice.
- HOXA9 transcriptionally activates vimentin (VIM) to promote EMT and facilitates β-catenin nuclear translocation, activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling.
- Hypomethylation of CpGs at the HOXA9 promoter correlates with gene upregulation in advanced stage tumors, supported by enrichment of activating histone modifications.
- HOXA9 serves as a potential inducer of EMT through the VIM/Wnt-β-catenin/EMT signaling axis and could be a biomarker and therapeutic target in oral cancer.