Zinc finger
proteins (ZNFs) are a class of
protein containing zinc finger domains, and they play an important role in
tumor progression. However, as a member of the ZNFs family, the effect of ZNF460 in
colon cancer remains unclear. In this study, we found that the expression of ZNF460
protein were markedly increased in clinical
colon cancer tissues compared with para-
cancer non-cancerous tissues by tissue immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot (WB). We also confirmed this result at the
mRNA and
protein levels of ZNF460 through bioinformatics analysis. In addition, high expression of ZNF460 was correlated with increased depth of invasion (P<0.05), increased
lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), distant
metastasis (P<0.05) and high blood serum CA19-9 level (P<0.05). High expression of ZNF460 predicted poor overall survival (OS) and recurrence free survival (RFS) in patients with
colon cancer. Moreover, multivariate analyses revealed that ZNF460 was an independent prognostic factor in both OS (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.636; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.028-2.603; P = 0.038) and RFS (HR: 2.215; 95% CI: 1.227-3.997; P = 0.008). The knockdown of ZNF460 suppressed the invasion and
metastasis of
colon cancer cells in vitro. Mechanistically, we revealed that ZNF460 promotes the activation of the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in
colon cancer cells. Taken together, overexpression of ZNF460 predicted worse survival and promoted
metastasis through JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in patient with
colon cancer, and could be a novel therapeutic target in
colon cancer.