NFAT1 Hypermethylation Promotes Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Metastasis in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma by Activating ITGA6 Transcription

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic change in carcinogenesis. However, the function and mechanism of DNA methylation dysregulation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is still largely unclear. Our previous genome-wide microarray data showed that NFAT1 is one of the most hypermethylated transcription factor genes in NPC tissues. Here, we found that NFAT1 hypermethylation contributes to its down-regulation in NPC. NFAT1 overexpression inhibited cell migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in vitro and tumor metastasis in vivo. We further established that the tumor suppressor effect of NFAT1 is mediated by its inactivation of ITGA6 transcription. Our findings suggest the significance of activating NFAT1/ITGA6 signaling in aggressive NPC, defining a novel critical signaling mechanism that drives NPC invasion and metastasis and providing a novel target for future personalized therapy.