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Background: Gemcitabine is proven to be the first-line standard treatment of breast cancers. Yet, little is known involving gemcitabine resistance and remains largely to be elucidated.
Materials and methods: We evaluated the expression of Cx43 in gemcitabine-resistant cells and parental cells by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analyses. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was applied to examine the epigenetic regulator of Cx43. The role of miR-218-5p-Cx43 axis on cell cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, colony formation, chemoresistance and migration was detected via mammalian expression vector and small short RNA (shRNA) transfection in vitro.
Results: In this study, we found that Cx43 expression levels were significantly lower in gemcitabine-resistant cells than in the parental cells. On deep investigation of the epigenetic regulation of Cx43, a few miRNA candidates targeting Cx43 were derived. Through dual-luciferase reporter assay, Cx43 was proved to be a direct target of miR-218-5p. Besides, qPCR, Western blot demonstrated an inverse correlation between miR-218-5p and Cx43 expression in breast cancer cells, thus forming the miR-218-5p-Cx43 axis. Notably, miR-218-5p-Cx43 axis was found to be involved in the process of gemcitabine chemoresistance, cell proliferation and migration in breast cancer cells.
Conclusion: Our findings suggested that miR-218-5p-Cx43 axis was versatile and indicated significant potency in breast cancer cells. More importantly, miR-218-5p-Cx43 axis might be valuable in translational medicine, with therapeutic and prognostic information.
Keywords: Cx43, breast cancer, miR-218-5p, gemcitabine, multifunction