BACKGROUND: Approximately 20% of patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) will develop cancer recurrence, but no clinically available biomarker has been identified. Our study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of G protein-coupled receptor kinase 6 (GRK6) in PTCs.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 108 PTC patients in this study, and explored the expression of GRK6 in resected tumor samples by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The clinical data were interpreted by chi-square test, univariate analysis, and multivariate analysis. To investigate the functional mechanisms of GRK6 in regulating PTC progression, we also performed overexpression and silencing experiments in TPC-1 cells, a cell line generated from PTC tissues.

RESULTS: RT-qPCR results showed a higher level of GRK6-mRNA in PTCs than in adjacent thyroid tissues. IHC revealed a distinct protein expression pattern of GRK6 among PTCs. Accordingly, we classified patients into low-GRK6 and high-GRK6 groups. The chi-square test showed that a higher GRK6 was associated with larger tumor size (P=0.045) and advanced TNM stage (P=0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival curve and log rank test demonstrated that higher GRK6 predicted poor disease-free survival (DFS) in PTC patients (P=0.002). Furthermore, Cox regression analysis confirmed that GRK6 was an independent prognostic factor for a higher recurrence risk of PTCs (P=0.047). MTT assay and Transwell assay demonstrated that GRK6 overexpression can significantly enhance tumor proliferation and invasion, which was consistent with clinical findings.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data show the oncogenic effects of GRK6 in promoting PTC progression.

Keywords: Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2a