Concurrent alterations of RAGE, RECK, and MMP9 protein expression are relevant to Epstein-Barr virus infection, metastasis, and survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

This study aimed to concurrently investigate the expressions of receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), reversion inducing cysteine-rich protein with Kazal motifs (RECK) and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and their correlations with clinicopathological properties. Using immunohistochemistry, we found that RECK expression was downregulated in NPC tissues compared with chronic nasopharyngitis (CNT) tissues, while RAGE and MMP9 expressions were upregulated. We further found that RECK expression level was inversely correlated with MMP9 expression level in NPC, whereas RAGE expression level was positively correlated with MMP9 expression level. Moreover, aberrant expressions of these proteins had a positive correlation with the titers of EBVCA-IgA, lymphatic metastasis, recurrence and survival. Together, these findings suggest that dysregulations of RECK and RAGE expressions may be collectively involved in tumor progression of NPC by regulating MMP9 expression and that they may be a good prognostic predictors for NPC.