MicroRNA-433 inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in human cervical cancer through PI3K/AKT signaling by targeting FAK

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the role of microRNA-433 in the growth and death of cervical cancer cells. RNA isolation, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, an MTT assay, flow cytometry, and western blot analysis were used for this investigation. The results showed that the expression of microRNA-433 was downregulated in patients with cervical cancer. The disease-free survival and overall survival rates of patients with low expression levels of microRNA-433 were lower, compared with those in patients with high expression levels of microRNA-433. The expression levels of microRNA-433 were downregulated in cervical cancer in vitro. It was found that the downregulation of microRNA-433 promoted the growth and inhibited the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells through activating focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling. However, the upregulation of microRNA-433 induced apoptosis and suppressed the growth of cervical cancer cells through inhibiting the FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In addition, FAK or PI3K inhibitors promoted the death of cervical cancer cells following the downregulation of microRNA-433. These results revealed that microRNA-433 suppressed the growth of cervical cancer cells via the FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.