Platinum-based chemotherapies have long been used as a standard treatment in non-small cell lung cancer. However, cisplatin resistance is a major problem that restricts the use of cisplatin. Deregulated cell death mechanisms including apoptosis and autophagy could be responsible for the development of cisplatin resistance and miRNAs are the key regulators of these mechanisms. We aimed to analyse the effects of selected miRNAs in the development of cisplatin resistance and found that hsa-miR-15a-3p was one of the most significantly downregulated miRNAs conferring resistance to cisplatin in Calu1 epidermoid lung carcinoma cells. Only hsa-miR-15a-3p mimic transfection did not affect cell proliferation or cell death, though decreased cell viability was found when combined with cisplatin. We found that induced expression of hsa-miR-15a-3p via mimic transfection sensitised cisplatin-resistant cells to apoptosis and autophagy. Our results demonstrated that the apoptosis- and autophagy-inducing effects of hsa-miR-15a-3p might be due to suppression of BCL2, which exhibits a major connection with cell death mechanisms. This study provides new insights into the mechanism of cisplatin resistance due to silencing of the tumour suppressor hsa-miR-15a-3p and its possible contribution to apoptosis, autophagy and cisplatin resistance, which are the devil's triangle in determining cancer cell fate.

Aberrant expression profiles of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been previously demonstrated for having essential roles in a wide range of cancer types including leukemia. Antiproliferative or proapoptotic effects of capsaicin have been reported in several cancers. We aimed to study miRNAs involved in the Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathway in chronic myeloid leukemia cell model and the effects of the capsaicin treatment on cell proliferation and miRNA regulation. miR-520a-5p expression was extremely downregulated in capsaicin-treated cells. Repressing the level of miR-520a-5p by transient transfection with specific miRNA inhibitor oligonucleotides resulted in induced inhibition of proliferation in leukemic cells. According to bioinformatics analysis, STAT3 messenger RNA was predicted as a putative miR-520a-5p target; which was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. Cell proliferation inhibition was enhanced upon knockdown of STAT3 by RNA interference applications, but when miR-520a-5p inhibitor was additionally transfected onto STAT3 silenced cells, cell viability was dramatically decreased in leukemia cells. Finally, we observed the effects of capsaicin following miR-520a-5p inhibitor transfection upon cell proliferation, apoptosis, and STAT3 expression levels. We determined that, downregulation of miR-520a-5p affected the proliferation inhibition enhanced by capsaicin and reduced STAT3 mRNA and protein expression levels and increased apoptotic cell number. In summary, miR-520a-5p displays a therapeutic effect by targeting STAT3 and impacting the anticancer effects of capsaicin; whereas capsaicin, potentially through the miR-520a-5p/STAT3 interaction, induces apoptosis and inhibits K562 leukemic cell proliferation with need of further investigation.

BCR-ABL oncoprotein stimulates cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For cure, imatinib is a widely used tyrosine kinase inhibitor, but developing chemotherapeutic resistance has to be overcome. In this study, we aimed to determine differing genome-wide microRNA (miRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) expression profiles in imatinib resistant (K562/IMA-3 μM) and parental cells by targeting STAT5A via small interfering RNA (siRNA) applications. After determining possible therapeutic miRNAs, we aimed to check their effects upon cell viability and proliferation, apoptosis, and find a possible miRNA::mRNA interaction to discover the molecular basis of imatinib resistance. We detected that miR-2278 and miR-1245b-3p were most significantly regulated miRNAs according to miRNome array. Upregulating miR-2278 expression resulted in the inhibition of resistant leukemic cell proliferation and induced apoptosis, whereas miR1245b-3p did not exhibit therapeutic results. Functional analyses indicated that AKT2, STAM2, and STAT5A mRNAs were functional targets for miR-2278 as mimic transfection decreased their expressions both at transcriptional and translational level, thus highlighting miR-2278 as a tumor suppressor. This study provides new insights in discovering the mechanism of imatinib resistance due to upregulating the tumorsuppressor hsa-miR-2278 which stands for a functional therapeutic approach, inhibited leukemic cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and regain of chemotherapeutic drug response in CML therapy.

Signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins are latent cytoplasmic transcription factors that affect several cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and survival. Following phosphorylation, STATs are activated, and their upregulated expressions increase in malignancies with playing a role in the development of leukemia. In this study, transfection of K-562 cells with either unmodified or chemically modified anti-STAT3, -STAT5A, -STAT5B siRNAs for duration of 12 days, determining gene silencing at mRNA and protein levels, evaluating apoptosis rate, and detecting JAK/STAT pathway members' gene expression profiles via array method were aimed. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot assays indicated that STAT expressions were downregulated both at mRNA and protein levels, and TUNEL assay showed that leukemic cell apoptosis was induced due to inhibition of STATs. Array analysis resulted with decreases in signal transducer, phosphorylation inducer, and oncogene expressions, whereas increased expressions in STAT inhibitor and apoptosis inducer genes were observed. These results point out that siRNA application could constitute a new and alternative curative method for supporting therapy of CML-diagnosed patients in the future.

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Matrine, a natural product extracted from the root of Sophora flavescens, is a promising alternative drug in different types of cancer. Here, we aimed to investigate the therapeutic effects and underlying molecular mechanisms of matrine on human acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell line, CCRF-CEM. Cell viability and IC50 values were determined by WST-1 cell cytotoxicity assay. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis rates were analyzed by flow cytometry. Expression patterns of 44 selected miRNAs and 44 RNAs were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) using the Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR System. Matrine inhibited cell viability and induced apoptosis of CCRF-CEM cells in a dose-dependent manner. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated that matrine-treated CCRF-CEM cells significantly accumulated in the G0/G1 phase compared with the untreated control cells. hsa-miR-376b-3p (-37.09 fold, p = 0.008) and hsa-miR-106b-3p (-16.67 fold, p = 0.028) expressions were decreased, whereas IL6 (95.47 fold, p = 0.000011) and CDKN1A (140.03 fold, p = 0.000159) expressions were increased after matrine treatment. Our results suggest that the downregulation of hsa-miR-106b-3p leads to the upregulation of target p21 gene, CDKN1A, and plays a critical role in the cell cycle progression by arresting matrine-treated cells in the G0/G1 phase.

The JAK/STAT pathway components may play an important role in the apoptosis mechanism of leukemic cells under MP treatment in HL-60 and K-562 cells. Other pathways may also be involved with a post-translational modification seen in the HL-60 cell line, with both upregulation and downregulation of protein expression levels of STAT5B and STAT5A, respectively.