Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Molecular mechanisms of thymopoietin in papillary thyroid cancer: Multiplatform gene expression data, gene knockout screening, and in-house immunohistochemistry
Chang Song, Yu-Yan Pang, Shang-Yi Lu, Bin Li, Dong-Ming Li, Rong-Quan He, Di-Yuan Qin, Shi-De Li, Ning Qv, Yan-Mei Chen, Gang Chen, Juan He, Xiao-Bo Jiang
Chang Song, Yu-Yan Pang, Bin Li, Dong-Ming Li, Shi-De Li, Ning Qv, Yan-Mei Chen, Gang Chen, Juan He, Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Shang-Yi Lu, Department of Hepatological and Gland Surgery, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Wuzhou 543000, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Rong-Quan He, Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Di-Yuan Qin, Department of Computer Science and Technology, School of Computer and Electronic Information, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Xiao-Bo Jiang, Department of Academic Affairs, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Co-first authors: Chang Song and Yu-Yan Pang.
Co-corresponding authors: Juan He and Xiao-Bo Jiang.
Author contributions: Song C, Pang YY, Lu SY, Li B, and Li DM conceived and designed the study; Song C, Pang YY, Qv N, and Chen YM wrote the manuscript; He RQ, Qin DY and Li SD performed the experiments, acquired and analyzed the data; Li B, He RQ, Cheng G, He J, and Jiang XB revised and corrected the draft; all authors approved the final version of the article.
Supported by Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Health Commission Scientific Research Project, No. Z-A20220521; Guangxi Higher Education Undergraduate Teaching Reform Project, No. 2022JGA147; and The National College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program, No. 202310598042.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 2022-KT-Guiwei-126.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study.
Data sharing statement: Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Xiao-Bo Jiang, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Academic Affairs, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, No. 6 Shuangyong Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China.
jiang_xiaobo_gx@163.com
Received: March 17, 2025
Revised: April 27, 2025
Accepted: June 11, 2025
Published online: July 24, 2025
Processing time: 128 Days and 5.2 Hours
BACKGROUND
Although thymopoietin (TMPO) has been elucidated to be overexpressed in cancers, its underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood.
AIM
To investigate the expression and clinical significance of TMPO in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC).
METHODS
Databases such as Gene Expression Omnibus, The Cancer Genome Atlas Program-Genotype-Tissue Expression, The Human Protein Atlas (THPA), and tissue microarrays were screened. Immunohistochemical staining scores and standardized mean difference were used to calculate expression levels, and summary receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted to evaluate diagnostic performance. A Gene Set Enrichment Analysis enrichment analysis was conducted to identify TMPO-related signaling pathways. A protein interaction network was constructed to identify hub genes. The impact of TMPO on PTC cell proliferation and the effects of its knockout were analyzed using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) knockout screening and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia database.
RESULTS
The TMPO protein was significantly overexpressed in PTC tissues, primarily localized in the cytoplasm and nuclear membrane. The mRNA level analysis showed mild overexpression of TMPO in PTC tissues, with a certain discriminatory value (area under the curve = 0.66). TMPO may promote cancer through involvement in cell adhesion, focal adhesion, leukocyte migration, and multiple cancer-related signaling pathways. Additionally, CRISPR gene knockout experiments confirmed that TMPO knockout significantly inhibited the proliferation of PTC cell lines, indicating its important role in tumor growth.
CONCLUSION
TMPO is overexpressed in PTC and may serve as a therapeutic target and molecular biomarker for PTC.
Core Tip: This study provides the first comprehensive analysis of thymopoietin (TMPO) in papillary thyroid cancer using global high-throughput sequencing datasets and multilevel analyses. This reveals that TMPO is significantly overexpressed in papillary thyroid cancer cells, with potential roles in promoting tumor proliferation, invasiveness, and immune interactions. Its inhibition via clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats knockout significantly reduces cell proliferation, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target.
