ABSTRACT
Arsenic trioxide (ATO) has been reported to exert its anti-cancer activities in human cancers. However, the molecular mechanism of ATO-triggered anti-tumor activity has not been fully elucidated. Recently, multiple studies demonstrated that ATO could regulate miRNAs in human cancers. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether ATO regulated let-7a in breast cancer cells. We found that ATO upregulated let-7a level in breast cancer cells. We also found that up-regulation of let-7a inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis and retarded cell migration and invasion. We also observed that up-regulation of let-7a enhanced cell growth inhibition and invasion suppression induced by ATO treatment. Our findings suggest that ATO suppressed cell growth, stimulated apoptosis, and retarded cell invasion partly via upregulation of let-7a in breast cancer cells. Our study provides a new anti-tumor mechanism of ATO treatment in breast cancer.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81502126). This work is also supported in part by Natural Science Foundation of Anhui (1508085SMH232) and the program for graduate research of Bengbu Medical College (Byycx1315 and Byycx1616). This work was supported by grant from the priority academic program development of Jiangsu higher education institutions.