Embryonic stem cell pluripotent factor NANOG mediates the activity and invasion of breast cancer cells via AMPK/mTOR pathway / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the role of embryonic stem cell pluripotent factor NANOG in mediating the activity and invasion of breast cancer cells via AMPK/mTOR pathway.Methods:A total of 58 breast cancer patients were collected from Jul. 2019 to Aug. 2020, and the clinical data of each patient at admission were collected for comparative analysis. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression level of NANOG in adjacent tissues and cancer tissues, and Western blot was used to verify the regulation of AMPK/mTOR pathway by NANOG. Cells were treated with NANOG specific plasmid or AMPK inhibitor Compound C. Cell viability was detected by MTT and invasion ability was detected by Transwell.Results:The expression of NANOG was increased in breast cancer tissues (adjacent to cancer tissue 1.00±0.31, cancer tissue 1.45±0.27, t=8.34, P<0.004) and cell lines (MCF-10A 1.00±0.12, BT474 2.64±0.25, t=10.24, P=0.001; MCF-7 1.56±0.13, t=5.48, P=0.005; ZR-75-301.84±0.16, t=7.28, P=0.002), which could be used as a specific biomolecule for predicting breast cancer (all P<0.05). The expression level of NANOG may be related to lymph node metastasis, histological grade and pathological type. Compared with patients with non-lymph node metastasis (1.36±0.23) or non-invasive patients (1.35±0.25), patients with lymph node metastasis (1.54±0.27, t=2.61, P=0.012) or invasive patients (1.53±0.26, t=2.60, P=0.012) had higher expression of NANOG. After NANOG knockdown, AMPK protein and phosphorylation levels were increased, while mTOR and p70S6K protein and phosphorylation levels were decreased (all P<0.05). Knockdown of NANOG in cells inhibited the activity and invasion of breast cancer cells (activity si-RNA 100±8.65, si-NANOG 58.36±4.58, t=7.37, P=0.002; invasion si-RNA 121.41±10.34, si-NANOG 58.34±8.41, t=8.20, P=0.001), and the effect of knockdown of NANOG was relieved after AMPK inhibitor was used in cells (all P<0.05) . Conclusions:Embryonic stem cell pluripotent factor NANOG promotes the activity and invasion of breast cancer cells by inhibiting the activation of AMPK/mTOR pathway. NANOG can be used as an effective biomolecule for predicting breast cancer.