C/EBPα short-activating RNA suppresses metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma through inhibiting EGFR/β-catenin signaling mediated EMT
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with high mortality, and tumor metastasis is an important reason for poor prognosis. However, metastasis has not been effectively prevented in clinical therapy and the mechanisms underlying metastasis have not been fully characterized. CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-α (C/EBPα) is a transcriptional regulator with an essential role in tumor metastasis. We used short-activating RNAs (saRNA) to enhance expression of C/EBPα. Intravenous injection of C/EBPα-saRNA in a nude mouse liver orthotopic xenograft tumor model inhibited intrahepatic and distant metastasis. C/EBPα-saRNA-treated mice showed increased serum levels of albumin and decreased alanine aminotransferase (ALT), glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (AST), indicating a role of C/EBPα in improving liver function. Migration and invasion were inhibited in hepatoma cell lines transfected with C/EBPα-saRNA. We also observed an inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and suppression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), EGFR phosphorylation, and β-catenin in C/EBPa-saRNA-transfected cells. Our results suggested that C/EBPα-saRNA successfully inhibited HCC metastasis by inhibiting EGFR/β-catenin signaling pathway mediated EMT in vitro and in vivo.
Date Issued
2016-04-06
Date Acceptance
2016-03-23
Citation
PLOS One, 2016, 11 (4)
ISSN
1932-6203
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Journal / Book Title
PLOS One
Volume
11
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2016 Huan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
License URL
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
EPITHELIAL-MESENCHYMAL TRANSITION
BINDING-PROTEIN-ALPHA
SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA
PANCREATIC-CANCER
DOWN-REGULATION
GASTRIC-CANCER
BETA-CATENIN
EXPRESSION
LOCALIZATION
MECHANISMS
General Science & Technology
MD Multidisciplinary
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e0153117