Poly Adenylate Binding Protein Interacting protein 1 (PAIP1) plays a critical role in translation initiation and is associated with the several cancer types. However, its function and clinical significance have not yet been described in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its associated features like lymph node metastasis (LNM). Here, we used the data available from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) to analyze PAIP1 expression in oral cancer. The publicly available data suggests that PAIP1 mRNA and protein levels were increased in OSCC. The high PAIP1 expression was more evident in samples with advanced stage, LNM, and worse pattern of invasion. Moreover, the in vitro experiments revealed that PAIP1 knockdown attenuated colony forming, the aggressiveness of OSCC cell lines, decreasing MMP9 activity and SRC phosphorylation. Importantly, we found a correlation between PAIP1 and pSRC through the analysis of the IHC scores and CPTAC data in patient samples. Our findings suggest that PAIP1 could be an independent prognostic factor in OSCC with LNM and a suitable therapeutic target to improve OSCC patient outcomes.

聚腺苷酸结合蛋白相互作用蛋白 1 (PAIP1) 在翻译起始中起关键作用，并与几种癌症类型相关。然而，其功能和临床意义尚未在口腔鳞状细胞癌 (OSCC) 及其相关特征如淋巴结转移 (LNM) 中得到描述。在这里，我们使用来自 Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO)、癌症基因组图谱 (TCGA) 和临床蛋白质组肿瘤分析联盟 (CPTAC) 的数据来分析 PAIP1 在口腔癌中的表达。公开数据表明 OSCC 中 PAIP1 mRNA 和蛋白质水平增加。PAIP1 的高表达在晚期、LNM 和侵袭模式较差的样本中更为明显。此外，体外实验表明 PAIP1 敲低减弱了集落形成，OSCC 细胞系的侵袭性，降低 MMP9 活性和 SRC 磷酸化。重要的是，我们通过分析患者样本中的 IHC 评分和 CPTAC 数据发现了 PAIP1 和 pSRC 之间的相关性。我们的研究结果表明，PAIP1 可能是伴有 LNM 的 OSCC 的独立预后因素，也是改善 OSCC 患者预后的合适治疗靶点。