Wnt/CTNNB1 Signal Transduction Pathway Inhibits the Expression of ZFP36 in Squamous Cell Carcinoma, by Inducing Transcriptional Repressors SNAI1, SLUG and TWIST

The Wnt/CTNNB1 pathway is often deregulated in epithelial tumors. TheZFP36gene, encoding the mRNA binding protein Tristetraprolin (TTP), is downregulated in several cancers, where it has been described to behave as a tumor suppressor. By this report, we show that Wnt/CTNNB1 pathway is constitutively activated, andZFP36expression is downregulated in Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) cell lines compared to normal keratinocytes. Moreover, we suggest that the decrease ofZFP36expression might depend on the activity of transcriptional repressors SNAI1, SLUG and TWIST, whose expression is induced by Wnt/CTNNB1, highlighting a potential regulatory mechanism underlyingZFP36downregulation in epithelial cancers.