Molecular Oncology (Feb 2021)

Loss of STAT5A promotes glucose metabolism and tumor growth through miRNA‐23a‐AKT signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma

  • Yabo Jiang,
  • Yongzhen Tao,
  • Xiuping Zhang,
  • Xubiao Wei,
  • Min Li,
  • Xuxiao He,
  • Bin Zhou,
  • Weixing Guo,
  • Huiyong Yin,
  • Shuqun Cheng

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.12846
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 2
pp. 710 – 724

Abstract

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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Here, we identified that increased miR‐23a expression in HCC tissues was associated with worse survival. More importantly, we found that STAT5A was a target of miR‐23a, whose levels significantly decreased in tumor tissues. Stable expression of STAT5A in Huh7 cells suppressed glucose metabolism and tumor growth. Finally, this study showed that increased miR‐23a negatively regulated STAT5A, which further activated AKT signaling to enable rapid metabolism for accelerated tumor growth in HCC. Taken together, our results demonstrated that the miR‐23a‐STAT5A‐AKT signaling pathway is critical to alter glucose metabolism in HCC and may offer new opportunities for effective therapy.

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