Docking Protein 2 Inhibits Proliferation, Migration and Invasion of Breast Cancer Cells via the Ras/Extracellular Regulated Protein Kinases Pathway

Abstract

Background: This study was designed to investigate the effects of Downstream of Tyrosine Kinase 2, Docking Protein 2 (DOK2) on breast cancer cells, and its potential mechanism in disease pathogenesis. Methods: The expression of DOK2 in human breast cancer cell lines and mammary epithelial cells were assessed by RT-qPCR and Western blot assay. CCK8 was used to evaluate cell proliferation, wound healing and transwell were used to detect cell migration and invasion. Furthermore, Western blot was used to detect the expression of migration-related proteins, MMP2, MMP9 and Ras/ERK pathway-related proteins. Results: The expression level of DOK2 was significantly lower in breast cancer MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells compared with the normal breast cancer cell line MCF10A. To further investigate the function of DOK2, the overexpressed plasmid of DOK2 was transfected into MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells, the results revealed that DOK2 markedly inhibited cell proliferation, cell migration and invasion via inhibiting the Ras/ERK pathway. Conclusions: Collectively, the data demonstrated that DOK2 could directly inhibits proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancers via inhibiting the Ras/ERK pathway.