Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common human malignancies. Alterations in the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway are emerging as novel therapeutic targets for various cancer types, including CRC. RFWD3 plays a key role in replication protein A (RPA)-mediated DNA damage in cancer cells. Importantly, RFWD3 can respond to DNA damage by positively regulating p53 stability during G1 cell cycle checkpoint activation. Here, researchers show that knockdown of RFWD3 inhibits CRC development and progression in vitro and in vivo. Exploring the downstream mechanisms of RFWD3 action, researchers discovered that RFWD3 can transcriptionally activate BIRC5 through interaction with E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1). Therefore, BIRC5 is a downstream gene of RFWD3 in CRC regulation. Subsequent loss- and gain-of-function experiments demonstrated that overexpression of BIRC5 in RFWD3-depleted RKO cells reversed the inhibitory effects on cell proliferation, migration, and colony formation, while also improving apoptosis, indicating that the effects of RFWD3 depletion are primarily due to BIRC5 inhibition.
To confirm the role of BIRC5 in RFWD3-mediated CRC, the researchers used BIRC5-overexpressing RKO cell, RFWD3-knockdown RKO cell, and RFWD3-knockdown combined with BIRC5-overexpressing RKO cell, and conducted in vitro experiments. Simultaneously, changes in cell phenotype in these RKO cell models were observed using Celigo-based methods, scratch healing/Transwell migration assays, and flow cytometry. Consistent with previous findings, RFWD3 silencing significantly inhibited cell proliferation and migration. Conversely, in BIRC5-overexpressing RKO cells, cell proliferation, migration, and colony formation were enhanced, while apoptosis was reduced. Importantly, overexpressing BIRC5 in RFWD3-knockdown RKO cells reversed the inhibitory effects on cell proliferation, migration, and colony formation, while apoptosis was also improved, indicating that the effects of RFWD3 depletion were primarily due to BIRC5 inhibition (Figures 1A-E).
Figure 1. Overexpression of BIRC5 alleviates the inhibitory effects of RFWD3 knockdown on colorectal cancer cells. (Xu F, et al., 2021)