MCUR1 Promotes Osteosarcoma Cell Growth Through AKT/p53 Pathway

Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most aggressive malignant bone tumor worldwide. This study focuses on investigating the mechanism underlying the mitochondrial calcium uniporter regulator 1 (MCUR1)-mediated osteosarcoma (OS) cell growth. Methods: : A total of 49 patients diagnosed as OS in our hospital were included in the current study. The expression of MCUR1 in human OS tissues and various OS cell lines was detected by immunohistochemical staining (IHC) and western blot analysis, respectively. The effect of MCUR1 on AKT/p53 pathway and its correlation with miR-506-3p were investigated by a series of experiments including MTS, QRT-PCR, Western blot and IHC. Results: : Our data showed that MCUR1 was highly overexpressed in OS tumor tissues compared with the para-carcinoma tissues ( P <0.01). The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that high expression level of MCUR1 was linked with poor prognosis of OS patients. Additionally, knockdown of MCUR1 enhanced OS cell apoptosis and decreased the growth of OS cells compared with the corresponding controls ( P <0.05). Meanwhile, the expression level of p-AKT was decreased, whereas the protein expression level of p53 was increased in OS cells with MCUR1 downregulation. We also found that the IHC scores of MCUR1 were inversely correlated with that of p53 (r = -0.304, P =0.034). Likewise, the expression of MCUR1 and miR-506-3p in OS tissues were also inversely correlated (r=-0.304, P =0.034). Conclusions: : MCUR1 is overexpressed in OS cells and its expression is regulated by miR-506-3p. MCUR1 facilitates the progression of OS through activating AKT/p53 pathway. The data in the current study suggests that MCUR1 may serve as a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of OS.