FKBP11 improves the malignant property of osteosarcoma cells and acts as a prognostic factor of osteosarcoma

Background: Osteosarcoma has become the most common bone malignancy in adolescents. Although the clinical treatment of osteosarcoma has advanced considerably in recent years, the 5-year survival rate has not improved significantly. Recently, many studies have shown that mRNA has unique advantages as a target for drug therapy. Therefore, this study aimed to identify a new prognostic factor and provide a new target for the treatment of osteosarcoma to improve the prognosis of patients. Methods and results: We selected prognostic genes that are closely associated with osteosarcoma clinical features by obtaining osteosarcoma patient information from the GTEx and TARGET databases, and then we developed a risk model. We detected the expression of FKBP11 in osteosarcoma by qRT-PCR, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry and performed CCK-8, Transwell, colony formation, and flow cytometry assays to reveal the regulatory role of FKBP11. We found that FKBP11 was highly expressed in osteosarcoma; silencing FKBP11 expression suppressed the invasion and migration of osteosarcoma cells, slowed cell proliferation, and promoted apoptosis. We also found that silencing the expression of FKBP11 led to inhibition of MEK/ERK phosphorylation. Conclusions: In conclusion, we validated that the prognostic factor FKBP11 is closely associated with osteosarcoma. Additionally, we identified a novel mechanism by which FKBP11 ameliorates the malignant properties of osteosarcoma cells through the MAPK pathway and serves as a prognostic factor in osteosarcoma. This study provides a new method for the treatment of osteosarcoma.