Inhibiting mir-29 and targeting ADAM12: lidocaine inhibits breast cancer development

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancers among women in the world. For hundreds of years, researchers are devoted for developing new strategy against cancer. As a rapid and effective local anesthetic, lidocaine is reported having multiple-physiological functions in clinic treatment, such as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory activity. Besides, the microRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to be involved in the cancer development, and the miRNA-29 family is abnormally expressed in a variety of cancers, which could not only regulate the cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion, but also promote cancer cell apoptosis by binding to target proteins. However, the protective effect of lidocaine on breast cancer cells and the mechanism was still unclear. In the present study, the relative expression level of the miRNA-29 in cancer cells and tissues was measured with quantitative RT-PCR. Bioinformatic analysis was performed to predict the potential target of the miRNA-29 in breast cancer cells, and the luciferase reporter assay was employed to validate the direct binding of the target protein and the miRNA-29 in breast cancer cells. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and the Cell Apoptosis Assay Kit were utilized to analyze the cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis after lidocaine treatment.