Abstract
Osteosarcoma is one of the most common primary malignancies in bones and is characterized by high metastatic rates. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) derived from solid tumors can give rise to metastatic lesions, increasing the risk of death in patients with cancer. Here, we used bioinformatics tools to compare the gene expression between CTCs and metastatic lesions in osteosarcoma to identify novel molecular mechanisms underlying osteosarcoma metastasis. We identified TRAIP as a key differentially expressed gene with prognostic significance in osteosarcoma. We demonstrated that TRAIP regulated the proliferation and invasion of osteosarcoma cells. In addition, we found that TRAIP promoted KANK1 polyubiquitination and subsequent degradation, downregulating IGFBP3 and activating the AKT pathway in osteosarcoma cells. These results support the critical role of the TRAIP/KANK1/IGFBP3/AKT signaling axis in osteosarcoma progression and suggest that TRAIP may represent a promising therapeutic target for osteosarcoma.