Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in the world. CD73 (also known as NT5E) is involved in the progression of many cancers, but there are no reports on the study of CD73 in cervical cancer. Here, the researchers explored the effects of CD73 overexpression on the growth of cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo and its mechanism. The researchers constructed CD73 overexpressing cervical cancer cells (Hela and SiHa cells). The results showed that CD73 overexpression significantly promoted the proliferation of cervical cancer cells in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. In the CD73 overexpressed cell model and transplanted tumor tissue, the expression levels of EGFR and AKT1 were significantly increased. Knockdown of EGFR and AKT1 inhibited the proliferation of CD73 overexpressing cell models, and its mechanisms included inducing cell apoptosis, increasing the number of cells in the G2/M phase, and reducing the number of cells in the G1 phase. In addition, in CD73 overexpressing cells with EGFR/AKT1 knockdown, the expression levels of cell cycle regulatory molecules CDK2, CDK3, and CDKN1A were significantly increased. These research data indicate that CD73 overexpression promotes the growth of cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo by activating the EGFR/AKT1 pathway.
Previous studies have shown that CD73 overexpression is positively correlated with EGFR and AKT1 expression. Here, the researchers found that the expression of EGFR and AKT1 was increased in CD73-overexpressing cervical cancer cell models and transplanted tumor tissues (Figure 1A-C). To verify the effect of EGFR and AKT1 expression levels on the proliferation of CD73-overexpressing cervical cancer cells, they used si-EGFR and si-AKT1 transient transfection techniques to inhibit the expression of EGFR or AKT1 in CD73-overexpressing Hela cells (HelaCD73) and CD73-overexpressing SiHa cells (SiHaCD73) (Figure 1D, 1E). RTCA experiments showed that knocking down EGFR and AKT1 significantly reduced the proliferation rate of CD73-overexpressing Hela cells and CD73-overexpressing SiHa cells (Figure 1F, 1G). These results suggest that EGFR and AKT1 signals play an important role in the increased proliferation rate of CD73-overexpressing cervical cancer cells.
Figure 1. The effects of EGFR and AKT1 expression in HelaCD73 and SiHaCD73 cells proliferation. (Liu C, et al., 2022)