2. Academic Validation
  3. Melatonin suppresses chronic restraint stress-mediated metastasis of epithelial ovarian cancer via NE/AKT/β-catenin/SLUG axis

Melatonin suppresses chronic restraint stress-mediated metastasis of epithelial ovarian cancer via NE/AKT/β-catenin/SLUG axis

  • Cell Death Dis. 2020 Aug 18;11(8):644. doi: 10.1038/s41419-020-02906-y.
Shixia Bu 1 2 3,  Qian Wang 1 2 3,  Junyan Sun 1 2 3,  Xiao Li 4,  Tingting Gu 1 2 3,  Dongmei Lai 5 6 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030, China.
  • 2 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Embryo Original Disease, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030, China.
  • 3 Shanghai Municipal Key Clinical Speciality, Shanghai, 20030, China.
  • 4 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200233, China.
  • 5 The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030, China. laidongmei@hotmail.com.
  • 6 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Embryo Original Disease, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200030, China. laidongmei@hotmail.com.
  • 7 Shanghai Municipal Key Clinical Speciality, Shanghai, 20030, China. laidongmei@hotmail.com.
PMID: 32811805 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-020-02906-y
Abstract

Chronic stress has been shown to facilitate progression of epithelial ovarian Cancer (EOC), however, the neuro-endocranial mechanism participating in this process still remains unclear. Here, we reported that chronic restraint stress (CRS) promoted the abdominal implantation metastasis of EOC cells and the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related markers in tumor-bearing mouse model, including TWIST, SLUG, SNAIL, and β-catenin. We observed that β-catenin co-expressed with SLUG and norepinephrine (NE) in tumor tissues obtained from nude mice. Further ex vivo experiments revealed that NE promoted migration and invasion of ovarian Cancer cells and SLUG expression through upregulating expression and improving transcriptional function of β-catenin in vitro. A human phosphor-kinase array suggested that NE activated various kinases in ovarian Cancer cells, and we further confirmed that Akt Inhibitor reduced NE-mediated pro-metastatic impacts and activation of the β-catenin/SLUG axis. Furthermore, the expression levels of NE and β-catenin were examined in ovarian tumor tissues by using tumor tissue arrays. Results showed that the expression levels of both NE and β-catenin were associated with poor clinical stage of serous EOC. Moreover, we found that melatonin (MLT) effectively reduced the abdominal tumor burden of ovarian Cancer induced by CRS, which was partially related to the inhibition of the NE/Akt/β-catenin/SLUG axis. Collectively, these findings suggest a novel mechanism for CRS-mediated ovarian Cancer metastasis and MLT has a potential therapeutic efficacy against ovarian Cancer.

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