Abstract
MicroRNA-3137/Nuclear Protein Transcription Regulator 1 Axis Regulates Cervical Cancer Cells Proliferation, Apoptosis and Autophagy by PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway
Department of Gynaecology, 1Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huaian, Jiangsu 223300, China
Correspondence Address:
Chunyan Cai, Department of Gynaecology, The Affiliated Huaian No.1 People’s Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Huaian, Jiangsu 223300, China, E-mail: sisicai@126.com
Cervical cancer belongs to the second most frequent kind of cancer in female as well as a major cause of mortality in female all over the world. MicroRNAs are crucial modulators of multiple diseases. Based on GSE86100 database, microRNA-3137 expression was low in cervical cancer tissues and the difference was most significant, thus we further probed the potential along with mechanism of microRNA-3137 in cervical cancer cells. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction together with Western blot was implemented for examining gene expression. 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine and flow cytometry analyses were adopted for assessing cervical cancer cells proliferation and apoptosis. Immunofluorescence was implemented to measure the fluorescence intensity of autophagy marker LC3II. Target scan together with luciferase reporter assay were implemented for confirming the direct binding of microRNA-3137 and nuclear protein transcriptional regulator 1. The results revealed that, microRNA-3137 was under expressed in cervical cancer cells. Overexpressed microRNA-3137 repressed cervical cancer cells proliferation while elevated cells apoptosis. Besides, nuclear protein transcriptional regulator 1 was directly targeted and negatively regulated by microRNA-3137 and was highly expressed in cervical cancer cells. Moreover, nuclear protein transcriptional regulator 1 silence promoted autophagy in cervical cancer cells and rescue assays further validated that the microRNA-3137/nuclear protein transcriptional regulator 1 axis suppressed cervical cancer cells proliferation while promoted cells apoptosis and autophagy through inactivation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/ protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin pathway. Collectively, our study demonstrated that microRNA-3137/nuclear protein transcriptional regulator 1 axis affected cervical cancer cells proliferation, apoptosis, along with autophagy by means of inhibiting the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B/ mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, which may offer novel insights into the mechanism of cervical cancer progression as well as a novel therapy targeting for cervical cancer therapy.
