Knockdown of TFRC suppressed the progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma by downregulating the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway

BACKGROUND: The transferrin receptor (TfR) encoded by TFRC gene is the main cellular iron importer. TfR is highly expressed in many cancers and is expected to be a promising new target for cancer therapy; however, its role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unknown. METHODS: The TfR levels were investigated in NPC tissues and cell lines using immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Knockdown of TFRC using two siRNA to investigate the effects on intracellular iron level and biological functions, including proliferation by CKK-8 assay, colony formation, cell apoptosis and cell cycle by flow cytometry, migration and invasion, and tumor growth in vivo by nude mouse xenografts. RNA sequencing was performed to find possible mechanism after TFRC knockdown on NPC cells and further verified by western blotting. RESULTS: TfR was overexpressed in NPC cell lines and tissues. Knockdown of TFRC inhibited cell proliferation concomitant with increased apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, and it decreased intracellular iron, colony formation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in HK1-EBV cells. Western blotting showed that TFRC knockdown suppressed the levels of the iron storage protein FTH1, anti-apoptotic marker BCL-xL, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. We confirmed in vivo that TFRC knockdown also inhibited NPC tumor growth and decreased Ki67 expression in tumor tissues of nude mouse xenografts. RNA sequencing and western blotting revealed that TFRC silencing inhibited the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that TfR was overexpressed in NPC, and TFRC knockdown inhibited NPC progression by suppressing the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. Thus, TfR may serve as a novel biomarker and therapeutic target for NPC. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-023-02995-7.