Department of Anorectal, Xinchang Hospital Affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Anorectal, Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Shanxi Province, China.
J Chemother. 2023 Oct;35(6):539-549. doi: 10.1080/1120009X.2022.2157617. Epub 2022 Dec 22.
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the frequently used chemotherapeutic agents against colorectal cancer (CRC). However, 5-FU treatment remains clinical challenges since a large fraction of patients with CRC developed resistance to 5-FU-based chemotherapies. Hexokinase 2 (HK II), coding for a rate-limiting enzyme of glutamine metabolism, is responsible for the dysregulated glycolysis of cancers. In this study, we report epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and HK II were overexpressed in colon cancers and positively correlated with 5-FU resistance of CRC. In addition, expression of miR-143 was remarkedly suppressed in 5-FU resistant CRC patients and colon cancer cells. Moreover, miR-143 expression was effectively downregulated by EGFR and inversely associated with HK II expression in CRC cells. We identified HK II as a direct target of miR-143 in colon cancer cells. Overexpression of miR-143 inhibited glycolysis rate through direct targeting HK II, leading to re-sensitization of 5-FU resistant colon cancer cells to 5-FU treatment. Rescue experiments validated that recovering HK II in miR-143-overexpressing cells restored 5-FU resistance of CRC cells. In general, our study reveals critical roles of miR-143, which is a downstream effector of EGFR in 5-FU resistant CRC cells through direct targeting HK II, indicating miR-143 is an effectively therapeutic target for the treatment of patients with chemoresistant CRC.
5-氟尿嘧啶(5-FU)是治疗结直肠癌(CRC)的常用化疗药物之一。然而,由于很大一部分 CRC 患者对基于 5-FU 的化疗产生了耐药性,5-FU 治疗仍然存在临床挑战。己糖激酶 2(HK II),编码谷氨酰胺代谢的限速酶,负责癌症失调的糖酵解。在这项研究中,我们报告表皮生长因子受体(EGFR)和 HK II 在结肠癌中过度表达,并与 CRC 对 5-FU 的耐药性呈正相关。此外,miR-143 在 5-FU 耐药的 CRC 患者和结肠癌细胞中的表达显著受到抑制。此外,在 CRC 细胞中,miR-143 的表达可被 EGFR 有效下调,并与 HK II 的表达呈负相关。我们确定 HK II 是结肠癌细胞中 miR-143 的直接靶标。miR-143 的过表达通过直接靶向 HK II 抑制糖酵解速率,导致 5-FU 耐药的结肠癌细胞对 5-FU 治疗重新敏感。挽救实验验证了在 miR-143 过表达细胞中恢复 HK II 可恢复 CRC 细胞对 5-FU 的耐药性。总的来说,我们的研究揭示了 miR-143 通过直接靶向 HK II 在 5-FU 耐药的 CRC 细胞中作为 EGFR 的下游效应物的关键作用,表明 miR-143 是治疗耐药性 CRC 患者的有效治疗靶点。