UTMD inhibit EMT of breast cancer through the ROS/miR-200c/ZEB1 axis

Abstract

As a potential drug/gene delivery system, the ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) system can be used as a vehicle as well as increasing the permeability of biological barriers to enhance the effect of tumor treatment. However, the effect of UTMD in the tumor EMT process is unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential and mechanism of UTMD induced oxidative stress in inhibiting EMT of breast cancer. Human breast MDA231 cells were treated with microbubble (MB), ultrasound (US) and UTMD, respectively. The generation of oxidative stress, the levels of miR-200c, ZEB1 and vimentin, and the numbers of migratory cells were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively by the measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), qRT-PCR, western blot assay, and transwell assay. Then, to evaluate the role of UTMD-induced oxidative stress and miR-200c in the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) inhibition, the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and miR-200c inhibitor were used before UTMD treatment. We found that UTMD induced oxidative stress, upregulated the expression of miR-200c, downregulated the expression of ZEB1 and vimentin and suppressed the MDA231 cell migration. The addition of NAC and miR-200c inhibitor had an opposite impact on the expression of miR-200c and ZEB1, thus hindered the effects of UTMD on MDA231 cells EMT. In conclusion, UTMD can inhibit the EMT characteristics of MDA231 cells. The mechanism may be related to the regulation of the miR-200c/ZEB1 axis through the generation of ROS induced by UTMD, which may provide a new strategy to prevent the tumor cells EMT under UTMD treatment.