Original ArticleThioredoxin-1 promotes colorectal cancer invasion and metastasis through crosstalk with S100P

•Trx-1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in CRC patients.•Overexpression of Trx-1 enhances CRC invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.•Trx-1 knockdown inhibits CRC invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo.•Trx-1 activates S100P gene transcription.•S100P promotes Trx-1 expression and nuclear localization by upregulating p-ERK1/2 and downregulating TXNIP expression.

Thioredoxin-1 (Trx-1) is a small redox-regulating protein, which plays an important role in several cellular functions. Despite recent advances in understanding the biology of Trx-1, the role of Trx-1 and its underlying signaling mechanism in colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis have not been extensively studied. In this study, we observed that Trx-1 expression is increased in CRC tissues compared to the paired non-cancerous tissues and is significantly correlated with clinical staging, lymph node metastasis and poor survival. Overexpression of Trx-1 enhanced CRC cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, suppression of Trx-1 expression decreased cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, Trx-1 activates S100P gene transcription. S100P, in turn, promotes Trx-1 expression and nuclear localization by upregulating p-ERK1/2 and downregulating TXNIP expression. Our finding provides new insight into the mechanism of Trx-1/S100P axis in the promotion of CRC metastasis, and suggests that the Trx-1/S100P axis and their related signaling pathways could be novel targets for the treatment of metastatic CRC.