Ras-related protein Rab24 plays a predictive role in hepatocellular carcinoma and enhanced tumor proliferation.

BACKGROUND

Ras-related protein Rab24, which belongs to the small GTPase family, plays a crucial role in regulating intracellular protein trafficking. Dysregulation of has been recently identified in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its clinical significance and tumor related effects remain to be further clarified.

AIM

To explore the expression pattern of and its role in HCC progression.

METHODS

The expression profile of was tested in HCC tissues together with adjacent tissues from transcriptional, mRNA, and protein levels. The prognostic role of in HCC was assessed by univariate and multivariate analyses. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test. The effect of on cell proliferation was tested through cellular experiments and xenograft experiments.

RESULTS

expression was elevated in HCC tissues compared to adjacent liver tissues. High expression of was significantly associated with larger tumor size and advanced tumor stage. Moreover, HCC patients with high expression showed poorer overall survival, and was identified as an independent prognosis factor according to multivariate analysis. By using overexpression and shRNA knockdown strategies in HCC cell lines, we found that can promote HCC proliferation. Finally, we validated that silencing significantly attenuated xenograft growth .

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrated that high expression of was significantly correlated with poorer prognosis of HCC patients, indicating the potential of as a novel clinical biomarker and therapeutic target.