WDR4 promotes colorectal cancer progression by activating the GSK3β/β-catenin pathway.

WD repeat domain 4 (WDR4) has been reported to promote tumor metastasis in various cancers. However, its precise function in colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been reported yet. Herein, the expression pattern of WDR4 in CRC was determined by analyzing Gene Expression Omnibus datasets (GSE110225, GSE127069, GSE156355, and GSE184093) and GEPIA online dataset. In vitro and in vivo experiments, including CCK-8, colony formation, flow cytometry, wound healing, transwell assays, and xenograft mouse models, were used to investigate the role of WDR4 in CRC. Firstly, data from Kaplan-Meier database showed that high expression of WDR4 was associated with the poor prognosis of CRC patients. Then, upregulation of WDR4 was confirmed in clinical CRC tissues. In vitro functional experiments suggested that overexpression of WDR4 promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while knockdown of WDR4 has the opposite effects. Also, the oncogenic role of WDR4 was also verified in in vivo experiments. CO-IP-LC/MS analysis uncovered that glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) is the central protein that binds to WDR4. Mechanistically, WDR4 activated the β-catenin pathway by promoting GSK3β phosphorylation. This study demonstrates that WDR4 promotes CRC progression through activating GSK3β/β-catenin pathway, indicating that WDR4 might be a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment.