NRP1 promotes cell migration and invasion and serves as a therapeutic target in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Neuropilin 1 (NRP1) promotes tumor growth, angiogenesis, tumor migration, and invasion. Its higher expression is closely related to the metastasis and poor outcome of many cancers. We have reported that NRP1 was expressed at higher levels in highly metastatic cells in comparison to minimally metastatic cells in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the role of NRP1 in NPC cell migration and invasion is still unclear, and whether it could serve as a potential therapeutic target for patients with NPC still needs further investigation. In this study, our results demonstrated that ectopic expression of NRP1 in S26 and 6-10B cells promoted cell migration and invasion via wound healing and transwell assays. In contrast, knockdown of NRP1 in HONE1, CNE1 and S18 cells through Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats interference (CRISPRi) technology suppressed cell migration and invasion. Moreover, we found that EG00229, a small molecule inhibitor of NRP1, significantly suppressed NRP1-mediated promotion of NPC cells migration and invasion. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that NRP1 promoted migration and invasion by decreasing E-cadherin levels and increasing N-cadherin levels. Collectively, our results showed that NRP1 promotes cell migration and invasion and could function as a promising target for the future treatment of patients with NPC.