J Cancer 2016; 7(15):2408-2419. doi:10.7150/jca.15703 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Institute of Toxicology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan;
2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan;
3. Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan;
4. Department of Biotechnology, Hungkuang University, Taichung, Taiwan;
5. Cancer Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei;
6. The Ph.D. Program for Translational Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan;
7. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan;
8. Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
In this study, we observed that brown seaweed fucoidan inhibited human breast cancer progression by upregulating microRNA (miR)-29c and downregulating miR-17-5p, thereby suppressing their target genes, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 12 (ADAM12) and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), respectively. Moreover, fucoidan reduced the luciferase activity of 3'-untranslated region reporter; treatment of cells with the miR-29c mimic or miR-17-5p inhibitor also produced similar results. These effects of fucoidan inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer cells, as evidenced by an increase in E-cadherin and a drop in N-cadherin, and inhibited breast cancer cell survival, as evidenced by the activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that fucoidan inhibits breast cancer progression by regulating the miR-29c/ADAM12 and miR-17-5p/PTEN axes. Fucoidan is a potential chemopreventive/chemotherapeutic agent for breast cancer.
Keywords: Fucoidan, miR-29c, ADAM12, miR-17-5p, PTEN, breast cancer cells.