Effects of down-regulating HEATR3 on proliferation of colorectal cancer cells HCT116 and Akt signaling pathway

WANG Qian; BAO Yonghua; CHEN Zhiguo; YANG Wancai

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2016.10.002

Abstract：Objective To observe the effects of down-regulating HEATR3 on cell proliferation and Akt signaling pathway in colorectal cancer cell line HCT116, and to determine the role of HEATR3 in the colorectal cancer.Methods HCT116 cells were randomly divided into the observation group and control group which were separately transfected with the siRNA of HEATR3 and nonsense sequence.The optical density ( OD) value of cell proliferation was detected by MTT as-say, the expression level of HEATR3 mRNA was detected by real-time fluorescent quantificative PCR, and the protein lev-els of HEATR3, Akt and p-Akt were detected by Western blotting.Results There was no difference in the cell prolifera-tion between the two group before transfection.The OD values of cell proliferation in the observation group were lower than those of the control group at 24 h, 36 h and 48 h after transfection (all P<0.05);the HEATR3 mRNA and protein levels in the observation group were 0.49 ±0.04, 0.03 ±0.01, and those were 2.08 ±0.45 and 0.47 ±0.01 in the control group at 48 h after transfection (all P<0.05).Akt and p-Akt protein levels in the observation group were 0.49 ±0.01 and 0.05 ±0.01, and those were 0.96 ±0.01 and 0.92 ±0.01 in the control group after transfection (all P<0.05). Conclusion The down-regulation of HEATR3 can decrease the cell proliferation of colorectal cancer cells through inhibi-ting Akt signaling pathway, and HEATR3 may act as an important oncogene in the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer.