Abstract
BackgroundPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most serious causes of death in the world due to its high mortality and inefficacy treatments. MEX3A was first identified in nematodes and was associated with tumor formation and may promote cell proliferation and tumor metastasis. So far, nothing is known about the relationship between MEX3A and PDA.MethodsIn this study, the expression level of MEX3A in PDA tissues was measured by immunohistochemistry. The qRT-PCR and western blot were used to identify the constructed MEX3A knockdown cell lines, which was further used to construct mouse xenotransplantation models. Cell proliferation, colony formation, cell apoptosis and migration were detected by MTT, colony formation, flow cytometry and Transwell.ResultsThis study showed that MEX3A expression is significantly upregulated in PDA and associated with tumor grade. Loss-of-function studies showed that downregulation of MEX3A could inhibit cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, it was demonstrated that knockdown of MEX3A in PDA cells promotes apoptosis by regulating apoptosis-related factors, and inhibits migration through influencing EMT. At the same time, the regulation of PDA progression by MEX3A involves changes in downstream signaling pathways including Akt, p-Akt, PIK3CA, CDK6 and MAPK9.ConclusionsWe proposed that MEX3A is associated with the prognosis and progression of PDA,which can be used as a potential therapeutic target.
Highlights
To date, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1]
Target gene RNA interferes with the preparation of lentiviral vector MEX3A was used as a template to design multiple RNA interference target sequences, and the target sequence (5′-AGGCAAGGCTGCAAGATTAAG-3′) with the highest MEX3A knockdown efficiency was screened for downstream experiments
Upregulation of MEX3A in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) tissues According to the Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining (Fig. 1a and Table 1), the expression of MEX3A in PDA tissues was significantly higher than that in normal tissues (P
Summary
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1]. MEX3 has a conserved region of 65 to 70 amino acids, including two K homology domains and one human gene family homologous to MEX3, MEX3A-D [11]. MEX3A has been identified to be associated with diseases, especially cancer, such as Wilms tumors [13], gastric carcinomas [14], colorectal carcinomas [15]. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most serious causes of death in the world due to its high mortality and inefficacy treatments. MEX3A was first identified in nematodes and was associated with tumor formation and may promote cell proliferation and tumor metastasis. Nothing is known about the rela‐ tionship between MEX3A and PDA
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