ABSTRACT
Objective: To investigate the effect of myxomavirus (MV) on the proliferation of human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells, and its molecular mechanism. Methods: The human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells were cultured in vitro and infected with MV. At the same time, SKOV3 cells infected with inactivated virus or only cultured with RPMI 1640 medium were used as the negative control group or the blank group, respectively. The proliferation of SKOV3 cells in the three groups was determined by CCK-8 assay. The mRNA levels of Bcl-2 and survivin were detected by real-Time fluorescent quantitative PCR. The cell cycle distribution was analyzed by FCM. The expressions of total extracellular regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), phosphorylated ERK1/2 (p-ERK1/2), Akt, p-Akt, Bcl-2 and survivin proteins were measured by Western blotting. The activities of caspase-3 and caspase-8 were also quantified by colorimetric method. Results: Compared with the negative control group and the blank group, MV significantly inhibited the proliferation and cell cycle progression of human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells (all P < 0.05). After SKOV3 cells were infected with MV for 96 h, the mRNA and protein expressions of Bcl-2 and survivin were significantly down-regulated (both P < 0.05), while the phosphorylation levels of ERK1/2 and Akt were significantly decreased (both P < 0.05), but the activities of caspase-3 and caspase-8 were obviously enhanced (both P < 0.05). Conclusion: MV can inhibit the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells, and its mechanism may be related to blocking cell cycle progression, down-regulating the expressions of anti-Apoptotic proteins Bcl-2 and survivin, increasing the activation of caspase-3 and caspase-8, and inhibiting the phosphorylation of ERK and Akt in proliferation-related signal pathway.