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. The gene, 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, and expression is downregulated in Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) cell lines compared to normal keratinocytes. Moreover, we suggest that the decrease of expression might depend on the activity of transcriptional repressors SNAI1, SLUG and TWIST, whose expression is induced by Wnt/CTNNB1, highlighting a potential regulatory mechanism underlying downregulation in epithelial cancers.