MEX3A contributes to development and progression of glioma through regulating cell proliferation and cell migration and targeting CCL2

Abstract

Glioma is one of the most commonly diagnosed intracranial malignant tumors with extremely high morbidity and mortality, whose treatment was seriously limited because of the unclear molecular mechanism. In this study, in order to identify a novel therapeutic target for glioma treatment, we explored the functions and mechanism of MEX3A in regulating glioma. The immunohistochemical staining of MEX3A in glioma and normal tissues revealed the upregulation of MEX3A and further indicated the relationship between high MEX3A expression and higher malignancy as well as poorer prognosis of glioma. In vitro loss-of-function and gain-of-function experiments comprehensively demonstrated that MEX3A may promote glioma development through regulating cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, cell cycle, and cell migration. In vivo experiments also suggested the inhibition of glioma growth by MEX3A knockdown. Moreover, our mechanistic study identifies CCL2 as a potential downstream target of MEX3A, which possesses similar regulatory effects on glioma development with MEX3A and could attenuate the promotion of glioma induced by MEX3A overexpression. Overall, MEX3A was identified as a potential tumor promoter in glioma development and therapeutic target in glioma treatment.