Page 116 - D. Cancer biology

[D. Cancer biology-73]

Alteration of microRNA expression by the chemopreventive

agent pristimerin in human ovarian cancer cells

Huiwon No¹, Jin-Kyung Kim¹

¹Department of Biomedical Sciences, Deagu Catholic University, Gyeongsan-Si 38430, Korea

Pristimerin isolated from the Celastraceae and Hippocrateaceae families is a naturally occurring quinone methide
triterpenoid. Our previous indicates the potential value of pristimerin in suppressing colon tumorigenesis via
regulating the AKT/FOXO3a signaling pathway. MicroRNAs (miRNAs ) are small, non-protein-coding RNAs that can

function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes. Deregulation of miRNA expression has been reported in various cancer

including ovarian cancer. However, modulation of miRNA expression by chemopreventive phytochemicals remains
to be defined. In the present study, we investigated whether prisitmerin treatment altered miRNA levels in SKOV-3
cells to clarify the detailed mechanism of the anticancer effect of pristimerin. Pristimerin caused a significant increase

of miR-195-5p and miR-374b-5p expression in SKOV3 cells, while significantly impeding cell proliferation and
stimulating apoptosis. In addition, pristimerin treatment reduced the expression PSAT1 and BIRC3 gene, which are

representative targets of miR-195-5p and miR-374b-5p, respectively. Since PSAT1 and BIRC3 has oncogenic activity,
our results indicated that induced expression of miR-195-5p and miR-374b-5p by pristimerin treatment may

contribute to anti-cancer effect of pristimerin.