Ribosomal protein S3 selectively affects colon cancer growth by modulating the levels of p53 and lactate dehydrogenase.

In this study, we aim at determining the expression levels of RPS3 in a colon cancer cell line Caco-2 compared to a normal colon mucosa cell line NCM-460 and study the effects of targeting this protein by siRNA on cellular behavior. RPS3 was found to be expressed in both cell lines. However, siRNA treatment showed a more protruding effect on Caco-2 cells compared to NCM-460 cells. RPS3 knockdown led to a significant decrease in the proliferation, survival, migration and invasion and an increase in the apoptosis of Caco-2 cells. Western blot analysis demonstrated that these effects correlated with an increase in the level of the tumor suppressor p53 and a decrease in the level and activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), an enzyme involved in the metabolism of cancer cells. No significant effect was shown in normal colon NCM-460 cells. Targeting p53 by siRNA did not affect RPS3 levels indicating that p53 may be a downstream target of RPS3. However, the concurrent knockdown of RPS3 and p53 showed no change in LDH level in Caco-2 cells suggesting an interesting interplay among the three proteins. These findings might present RPS3 as a selective molecular marker in colon cancer and an attractive target for colon cancer therapy. PMID: 32748020 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Molecular Biology Reports - Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Tags: Mol Biol Rep Source Type: research