IPO5 Mediates EMT and Promotes Esophageal Cancer Development through the RAS-ERK Pathway

Objective. In the development of many tumors, IPO5, as a member of the nuclear transporter family, exerts a significant function. Also, IPO5 is used as a therapeutic target for tumors based on some reports. By studying IPO5 expression in esophageal cancer tissues, the mechanism associated with IPO5 improving esophageal cancer development was explored in this study. Methods. To gain differentially expressed genes, this study utilized mRNA microarray and TCGA database for comprehensive analysis of esophageal cancer tissues and normal esophageal cancer tissues, and then the differentially expressed gene IPO5 was screened by us. To assess esophageal cancer patients’ prognosis, this study also applied the Kaplan-Meier analysis, and we also conducted the GSEA enrichment analysis to investigate IPO5-related signaling pathways. This study performed TISIDB and TIMER online analysis tools to study the correlation between IPO5 and immune regulation and infiltration. We took specimens of esophageal cancer from patients and detected the expression of IPO5 in tumor and normal tissues by immunohistochemistry. The IPO5 gene-silenced esophageal cancer cell model was constructed by lentivirus transfection. Through the Transwell invasion assay, CCK-8 assay, and cell scratch assay, this study investigated the effects of IPO5 on cell propagation, invasion, and transfer. What is more, we identified the influences of IPO5 on the cell cycle through flow cytometry and established a subcutaneous tumor-forming model in nude mice. Immunohistochemistry was used to verify the expression of KI-67, and this study detected the modifications of cell pathway-related proteins using Western blot and applied EMT-related proteins to explain the mechanism of esophageal cancer induced by IPO5. Results. According to database survival analysis, IPO5 high-expression patients had shorter disease-free survival than IPO5 low-expression patients. Compared to normal tissues, the IPO5 expression in cancer tissues was significantly higher in clinical trials (P