Upregulation of Rpn10 promotes tumor progression via activation of the NF-κB pathway in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) plays a central role in regulating protein homeostasis in tumor progression. The proteasome subunit Rpn10 is associated with the progression of several tumor types. However, little is known regarding the role of Rpn10 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). In this study, we found that overexpression of Rpn10 increased ccRCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Silencing Rpn10 expression resulted in decreased cell proli-feration, migration, and invasion in ccRCC cells. Knockdown of Rpn10 inhibits tumor growth and cell proliferation in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrated that Rpn10 increased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion via regulation of the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. Rpn10 directly promoted inhibitor of nuclear factor-kappa B alpha (IκBα) degradation through the UPS. Moreover, we observed that upregulation of Rpn10 or downregulation of IκBα in ccRCC was associated with poor prognosis. We found that the combination of these two parameters was a more powerful predictor of poor prognosis than either parameter alone. Collectively, these findings provide evidence that Rpn10 promotes the progression of ccRCC by regulation of the NF-κB pathways and is a prognostic indicator for patients with ccRCC.