Peroxiredoxin-1 promotes cell proliferation and metastasis through enhancing Akt/mTOR in human osteosarcoma cells

Osteosarcoma is characterized by high propensity for metastasis, especially to the lung, which is the main cause of death. Peroxiredoxin-1 (PRDX1) plays significant roles in multiple processes of initiation and progression of tumorogenesis. However, whether PRDX1 participates in metastasis of osteosarcoma remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that PRDX1 overexpressed in osteosarcoma tissues comparing to adjacent non-tumor tissues. Two independent cohorts of patients showed high level of PRDX1 correlated with clinicopathological features such as larger tumor size and advanced tumor metastasis stage. While patients with high PRDX1 level have poor prognosis. Notably, expression level of PRDX1 especially increased in lung lesion of osteosarcoma patients, indicating that PRDX1 may promote lung metastasis. Ectopic expression of PRDX1 promotes osteosarcoma cell migration and metastasis in vitro and in vivo, whereas knockdown of PRDX1 expression suppresses cell metastatic behaviors such as invasion and migration. Furthermore, we found that PRDX1 promotes cells metastasis through enhancing Akt/mTOR signal pathway. Taken together, our findings prove the important role of PRDX1 in the molecular etiology of osteosarcoma and suggest that PRDX1 may be a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.