Endocrine Abstracts

Effective treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer relies on a multifaceted approach often including administration of 131I to ablate residual cancer cells post-surgery. The success of this treatment hinges upon adequate uptake of iodide by malignant thyroid follicular cells. In a subset of patients, dedifferentiation of the carcinoma can result in aberrant expression and trafficking of the iodide transport protein, the sodium iodide symporter (NIS), resulting in ...

Introduction: New therapeutic strategies are urgently needed to improve radioiodide (RAI) uptake and efficiently ablate thyroid cancer cells, thereby reducing the risk of recurrent disease. We recently utilised high throughput screening and identified FDA-approved compounds capable of inducing sodium iodide symporter (NIS) function to enhance iodide uptake. Categorisation revealed a high proportion of drugs that modulate proteostasis, with 6 of the top 15 targeting activity of...

The proto-oncogene pituitary tumor-transforming gene-binding factor (PBF) is upregulated in multiple tumours including thyroid cancer. PBF overexpression mediates tumorigenic processes such as cell motility and accelerates thyroid cancer cell invasion. We have recently shown that both PBF phosphorylation at tyrosine 174 (Y174) and PBF endocytosis are required for PBF-stimulated thyroid and breast cancer cell migration and invasion. This prompted further investigation into a ph...

The progression of thyroid cancer is dependent on cell motility, a highly complex process that involves the co-ordination of multiple signalling pathways, cell adhesion, and actin dynamics. The proto-oncogene pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG)-binding factor (PBF/PTTG1IP) potently stimulates thyroid cancer cell migration and invasion via PBF phosphorylation by Src kinase at residue Y174. Recent phosphoproteomic and RNA-Seq analyses revealed that upregulation of PBF in Nt...

The proto-oncogene pituitary tumor transforming gene binding factor (PTTG1IP/PBF) is overexpressed in multiple tumours and associated with tumour progression. One of the tumourigenic processes that PBF can mediate is cell motility. PBF can induce cell invasion in both thyroid and breast cancer cell lines. However, in contrast to wild-type (WT) PBF, the Y174A PBF mutant was not able to induce the invasiveness of thyroid or breast cancer cells. The Y174 residue is highly phospho...

Thyroid tumor progression is dependent on cell motility, a highly complex process that involves the co-ordination of cell adhesion, actin dynamics and signal transduction. The proto-oncogene pituitary tumor-transforming gene (PTTG)-binding factor (PBF/PTTG1IP) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is overexpressed in thyroid cancer and associated with a poorer prognosis. PBF significantly promotes thyroid cancer cell migration and invasion through phosphorylation at PBF-Y174 by...

Background: The sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) frequently shows diminished targeting to the plasma membrane (PM) in differentiated thyroid cancer, resulting in suboptimal radioiodine treatment and poor prognosis. However, the mechanisms which govern the endocytosis of NIS away from the PM – its sole site of transport activity – are ill-defined, and may be of direct therapeutic potential. We previously showed that the proto-oncogene PBF binds NIS and enhances its inter...

Introduction: Radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy is a critical component in the post-surgical management of thyroid cancer patients, as well as being a central therapeutic option in the treatment of hyperthyroidism. Previous work suggests that antithyroid drugs hinder the efficacy of RAI therapy in patients. However, the effects of other background medications on RAI treatment efficacy have not been evaluated. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and metanalysis investiga...

Introduction: New drug approaches are urgently required to improve radioiodide (RAI) uptake for efficient ablation of thyroid cancer cells in RAI-refractory disease. Employing high-throughput screening of FDA-approved compounds we recently identified drugs capable of robust induction of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) activity to promote RAI uptake1. In particular, a leading drug candidate – the well-established anti-alcoholism drug disulfiram (DSF) – had no...

Thyroid cancer is increasing in incidence worldwide. While outcomes are generally good, up to 25% of patients suffer recurrence, and this has a significant impact on their quality of life and life expectancy. We hypothesised that thyroid tumours which recur display a distinct pattern of driver events, present on initial histology. Controlled-access TCGA data on thyroid cancer were downloaded and whole exome sequencing data analysed. An analysis pipeline utilising Platypus, Ann...