Carcinogenesis, Teratogenesis & Mutagenesis ›› 2021, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (2): 136-142.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-616x.2021.02.009

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CASIN, a CDC42 inhibitor, inhibited viability and migration of esophageal carcinoma cells in vitro

CHEN Wanxian1,2, WANG Simeng1,2, CHEN Zhangyu1,2, WANG Panji1,2, ZHENG Chunwen1,2, LI Enmin1,2, XU Liyan1   

  1. 1. Institute of Basic Medicine, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041;
    2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou 515041, Guangdong, China
  • Received:2020-12-08 Revised:2021-02-22 Online:2021-03-30 Published:2021-04-12

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: To investigate effects of CASIN,a specific cell division circle 42 (CDC42) inhibitor,on viability,migration and pseudopodia of esophageal cancer cells,and its mechanism of inducing apoptosis. METHODS: According to expression of the CDC42 protein,four groups were set up:endogenous CDC42 high/low expression groups and exogenous CDC42 high/low expression groups. Western blot was used to detect expression of endogenous CDC42 protein in 9 esophageal cancer cell lines. From the analyses,two endogenous high-expression and two low-expression esophageal cancer cell lines were selected. Cell viability assay was used to detect the effect of CASIN on cell viability. Wound healing assay was to detect cell invasion. Western blot was to detect protein expression levels of Caspases-3 and PARP. After constructed the Flag-CDC42 and GFP-CDC42 plasmid successfully,they were transfected into esophageal cancer cells to distinguish exogenous CDC42 high/low expression groups. Cell viability assay and wound healing assay were used as described above. Furthermore,the immunofluorescence experiment was used to detect effects of CASIN on pseudopodia formation. RESULTS: In the endogenous CDC42 high/low expression groups,our data show that CASIN at concentrations of 15-30 μmol/L significantly inhibited cell viability and cell invasion (P<0.05),and increased the expression of Caspase-3 and lyse PARP. The latter suggests that CASIN might induce cell apoptosis. Compared with the exogenous CDC42 low expression group,20 μmol/L CASIN significantly reduced expression in the exogenous CDC42 high expression group (P<0.05). In addition,data from the immunofluorescence experiments show that CASIN suppressed the effect of CDC42 in promoting the formation of pseudopodia. CONCLUSION: CASIN reduced the viability and migration of esophageal cancer cells,inhibit pseudopodia,and induce cell apoptosis in vitro. Therefore,CASIN can be developed further as a new targeted drug against esophageal cancer.

Key words: CDC42, CASIN, esophageal cancer, inhibition

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