Open Access
ARTICLE
MiR-194-5p suppresses the warburg effect in ovarian cancer cells through the IGF1R/PI3K/AKT axis
LIJUN DU1, KAIKAI DOU1, NIANHAI LIANG1,2, JIANMIN SUN1, RU BAI1,*
1 School of Basic Medicine, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, 750004, China
2 The Fifth People’s Hospital of Ningxia, Shizuishan, 753000, China
* Corresponding Author: RU BAI. Email:
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Non-Coding RNAs in the Regulation of Human Cancers)
BIOCELL 2023, 47(3), 547-554. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2023.025048
Received 19 June 2022; Accepted 06 October 2022; Issue published 03 January 2023
Abstract
Background: The Warburg effect is considered as a hallmark of various types of cancers, while the regulatory
mechanism is poorly understood. Our previous study demonstrated that miR-194-5p directly targets and regulates
insulin-like growth factor1 receptor (IGF1R). In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of miR-194-5p in the
regulation of the Warburg effect in ovarian cancer cells.
Methods: The stable ovarian cell lines with miR-194-5p
overexpression or silencing IGF1R expression were established by lentivirus infection. ATP generation, glucose uptake,
lactate production and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) assay were used to analyze the effects of aerobic glycolysis
in ovarian cancer cells. Gene expression was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and western
blot. Immunohistochemistry assays were performed to assess the expression of the IGF1R protein in ovarian cancer
tissues.
Results: Overexpression of miR-194-5p or silencing IGF1R expression in ovarian cancer cells decreases ATP
generation, glucose uptake, lactate production, and ECAR and inhibits both the mRNA and protein expression of
PKM2, LDHA, GLUT1, and GLUT3. While the knockdown of miR-194-5p expression led to opposite results.
Overexpression of miR-194-5p or silencing IGF1R expression suppressed the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein
kinase B (PI3K/AKT) pathway, whose activation can sustain aerobic glycolysis in cancer cells, and the knockdown of
miR-194-5p expression promoted the activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that miR-
194-5p can inhibit the Warburg effect by negative regulation of IGF1R and further repression of the PI3K/AKT
pathway, which provides a theoretical basis for further test of miR-194-5p as a target in the treatment of ovarian cancer.
Keywords
Cite This Article
DU, L., DOU, K., LIANG, N., SUN, J., BAI, R. (2023). MiR-194-5p suppresses the warburg effect in ovarian cancer cells through the IGF1R/PI3K/AKT axis.
BIOCELL, 47(3), 547–554.