title: Bufalin promotes apoptosis of gastric cancer by down-regulation of miR-298 targeting bax.
abstract: Bufalin is used to treat many patients with solid malignant tumors clinically. Bufalin could induce gastric cancer cell apoptosis via BAX. microRNA (miRNA) plays important roles in gene regulation. However, miRNA involving in bufalin inducing apoptosis of gastric cancer cells remains to futher research. To study the regulatory role of miRNA in bufalin induced cancer cell apoptosis. Firstly, we verifed that bufalin could induce gastric cancer cell apoptosis by inducing BAX expression. miR-298 was predicted as a regulator of BAX and further study verified Bax was a target gene of miR-298 by luciferase reporter assay. miR-298 could down-regulate BAX on mRNA and protein level in gastric cancer cells. miR-298 promoted cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. It was also found that bufalin inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis by down-regualtion of miR-298. In summary, bufalin-associated miR-298 may indirectly be involved in cell proliferation and apoptosis by targeting BAX, pointing to use as a potential molecular target in gastric cancer therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China ; Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Hospital of Harbin Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Dali
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Liwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Tiefu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: BAX; Bufalin; apoptosis; gastric cancer; miR-298