MicroRNA silencing of CNN1 and CNN2 protein family members regulates biology processes in colorectal cancer by targeting the p53 signal pathway

Abstract BackgroundCalponin was first defined as a striated muscle troponin T-like protein that binds actin thin filaments to regulate smooth muscle contraction. There are few studies of CNN1 and CNN2 in colorectal cancer, and the roles these two genes play in colorectal cancer cell lines and the mechanisms by which they act are unknown.MethodsWe used immunohistochemistry to identify expression of the two genes in the cancer tissues. RT-PCR was used to measure expression levels of microRNA. W performed western blots to measure changes in signaling pathways in the context of expression interference.Meanwhile, the same method was used to measure binding relationship between the two genes and key pathway proteins. To determine the relationship between microRNA and gene mRNA, we used the reporter gene method. We used the chi-square and t-test methods to analyze the significance and correlations of the data.Results and conclusionsExpression levels of CNN1 were lower in colon cancer tissues than in normal mucosal tissues. After downregulating CNN1, the cell cycle in colon cancer cell lines progressed quickly, and the expression of related pathway proteins also increased. Expression levels of CNN2 were higher in colon cancer tissues, and its downregulation significantly inhibited cell cycle progression in colon cancer cell lines. We confirmed correlations between the expression of microRNA and CNN2 using data analysis.Bars indicate ± standard errors.*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01 compared with the control. The inhibition of the expression of CNN2 mRNA using microRNA was confirmed using western blot. The combination of the two at the mechanism level was also demonstrated using the reporter gene method.