Li C, Liu Y, Liu J, Chen Y, Li Z, Chen X, Yang K, Li M, Liu Z. Rapamycin inhibits human glioma cell proliferation through downregulating mTOR pathway and upregulating microRNA-143. Head Neck Oncol. 2012 Oct 14;4(3):66.

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that rapamycin regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, and glycolysis in human glioma cells and investigate the underlying mechanism.Human malignant glioma cell line U251 cells were treated with 100mM rapamycin for 6, 12, or 24 hours. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were assayed by MTT and flow cytometric analyses. RNA and protein expression levels were then measured by real-time PCR (RT-PCR) and western blotting, respectively. The administration of rapamycin inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of U251 cells. With prolonged treatment with rapamycin, the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in U251 cells gradually decreased. Moreover, our data showed that rapamycin upregulated miR-143 and downregulated hexokinase 2 (HK2), a key enzyme in glycolysis, in the glioma U251 cells. Collectively, our data suggests a new anti-tumor role of rapamycin in gliomas and indicates rapamycin-mediated glioma cell proliferation might be through inhibiting mTOR pathway and upreagulating a tumor suppressing miR-143. These data suggest a promising novel rapamycin and miR-143 based therapy to treat malignant glioma.

Source: Head and Neck Oncology - February 13, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research