Panoply™ Human PKMYT1 Knockdown Stable Cell Line

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant tumor and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Protein kinase membrane-associated tyrosine/threonine kinase 1 (PKMYT1) is overexpressed in various cancer types, including HCC, but its underlying mechanisms and biological functions remain largely unclear. Here, researchers observed that PKMYT1 expression levels were higher in human HCC tissues compared to adjacent tissues. Overexpression of PKMYT1 was closely associated with poor prognosis in HCC patients. Knockdown of PKMYT1 inhibited the proliferation and migration abilities of HCC cell lines. The researchers also found that downregulation of PKMYT1 inhibited autophagy and induced apoptosis. RNA sequencing analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that PKMYT1 knockdown may regulate the MAPK and PI3K-AKT pathways, which have been reported to affect autophagy and apoptosis. Furthermore, PKMYT1 knockdown attenuated the phosphorylation levels of p38 MAPK, ERK, and PI3K/Akt/mTOR, which may mediate autophagy inhibition and apoptosis induction through these signaling pathways, thereby inhibiting the development of HCC.

Here, researchers used Transwell assays to evaluate the pro-tumorigenic effect of PKMYT1 in HCC cell lines. The results showed that the cell migration ability of PKMYT1 knockdown cells was significantly reduced (Figure 1A). Furthermore, the researchers also detected the mRNA and protein expression levels of migration-related markers N-cadherin and vimentin (Figure 1B and C). The results consistently showed that the expression levels of these markers were reduced in PKMYT1 knockdown HCC cells. Immunofluorescence experiments further validated these results (Figure 1D). In summary, these data indicate that PKMYT1 knockdown inhibits the proliferative and migratory abilities of HCC cells.

Figure 1. PKMYT1 knockdown inhibits HCC cell migration. (Wu F, et al., 2023)