UBE2T promotes proliferation, invasion and glycolysis of breast cancer cells by regualting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

Abstract

Purpose

Breast cancer (BCa) is one of the most common gynecological malignancies. Ubiquitin-coupled enzyme E2T (UBE2T) has been demonstrated to play crucial roles in various tumors.

Methods

UBE2T levels were detected using quantitative real time PCR and western blot. CCK-8 and colony formation assays were used to evaluate cell proliferation. A xenograft model was used to evaluate the effects of UBE2T on tumor growth in mice, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay was performed to detect the expression of UBE2T and Ki-67. Transwell assay was performed to determine cell migration and invasion. The ATP level, glucose consumption and lactate production were measured using the corresponding commercial kits. Western blot assay was used to detect the levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT), glycolytic and the PI3K/AKT pathway related proteins regulated by UBE2T.

Results

Upregulation of UBE2T expression in human BCa tissues was found in human clinical BCa tissues and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. The expression of UBE2T was confirmed to be up-regulated in BCa cells compared to normal breast epithelial cell line (MCF-10A). Overexpression of UBE2T promoted proliferation, migration, invasion and glycolysis in BCa cells, while UBE2T knockdown showed the opposite results. Moreover, UBE2T knockdown suppressed tumor growth in mice. Further mechanism analysis shows that UBE2T participated in the regulation of BCa progression through affecting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Conclusion

UBE2T promoted proliferation, invasion and glycolysis through modulating PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in BCa, implying that UBE2T may provide a promising therapeutic target for the therapy of BCa.

Keywords:

• Breast cancer (BCa)
• ubiquitin-coupled enzyme E2T (UBE2T)
• proliferation
• invasion
• glycolysis
• PI3K/AKT

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The animal use peotocol listed below has been reviewde and approved by by the Clinical Research Ethics Committees of the Xinjiang Medical University affiliated Tumor Hospital (approval no.K-2019035).

Author contributions

BLM conceived and designed the experiments, LQ analyzed and interpreted the results of the experiments, CD performed the experiments.

Disclosure statement

The authors state that there are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Regional Science Foundation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 81960478].