1. Academic Validation
  2. ECT2 promotes malignant phenotypes through the activation of the AKT/mTOR pathway and cisplatin resistance in cervical cancer

ECT2 promotes malignant phenotypes through the activation of the AKT/mTOR pathway and cisplatin resistance in cervical cancer

  • Cancer Gene Ther. 2022 Sep 2. doi: 10.1038/s41417-022-00525-7.
Xiaoli Liu 1 2 3 Junhua Zhang 1 2 3 Shuang Ju 1 2 3 Lu Liu 1 2 3 Yu Sun 1 2 3 Lingyu Guo 1 2 3 Qianwei Zhen 1 2 3 Sai Han 1 2 3 Wei Lu 1 2 3 Youzhong Zhang 4 5 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Gynecologic Oncology of Shandong Province, Jinan, China.
  • 3 Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Urogynecology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China.
  • 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qilu Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China. [email protected].
  • 5 Key Laboratory of Gynecologic Oncology of Shandong Province, Jinan, China. [email protected].
  • 6 Shandong Engineering Laboratory for Urogynecology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China. [email protected].
Abstract

Epithelial cell transforming sequence 2 (ECT2) is expressed at high levels in various malignancies and contributes to malignant phenotypes in cancers. However, ECT2 is still not fully understood regarding its function and carcinogenic mechanism in cervical Cancer. This research indicated that ECT2 expression was elevated in cervical Cancer based on bioinformatics analysis and clinical specimens. Experiments in vitro and in vivo confirmed that ECT2 knockdown could suppress the proliferation and metastasis of cervical carcinoma cells. In addition, we found that silencing ECT2 could enhance the sensitivity to cisplatin and promote cell Apoptosis. Mechanistically, we observed that ECT2 knockdown could inhibit the Akt/mTOR pathway and activate Apoptosis, while ECT2 overexpression induced the opposite effect. The relationship between ECT2 and Akt was further confirmed by immunoprecipitation and rescue experiments. We found that the ECT2 and Akt could interact to form a complex, and knockdown Akt could offset all of the effects induced by ECT2. Our study emphasized the key point of ECT2 in the reversal of cisplatin resistance, and ECT2 could become a potential therapeutic target in cervical Cancer.

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