Open Access

ARTICLE

Kinesin Motor Protein KIFC1 Is a Target Protein of miR-338-3p and Is Associated With Poor Prognosis and Progression of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Gang Li^*, Tie Chong^*, Jie Yang^†, Hongliang Li^*, Haiwen Chen^*

* Department of Urology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, P.R. China
† Department of Nursing, Xi’an Beifang Chinese Medicine Skin Disease Hospital, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, P.R. China

Oncology Research 2019, 27(1), 125-137. https://doi.org/10.3727/096504018X15213115046567

Abstract

KIFC1 (kinesin family member C1) plays a critical role in clustering of extra centrosomes in various cancer cells and thus could be considered as a promising therapeutic target. However, whether KIFC1 is involved in the procession of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) still remains unclear. In this study, we found that KIFC1 was upregulated in RCC tissues and is responsible for RCC tumorigenesis (p<0.001). The high expression of KIFC1 correlates with aggressive clinicopathologic parameters. Kaplan–Meier analysis suggested that KIFC1 was associated with poor survival prognosis in RCC. Silencing KIFC1 dramatically resulted in inhibition of proliferation, delayed the cell cycle at G₂/M phase, and suppressed cell invasion and migration in vitro. The antiproliferative effect of KIFC1 silencing was also observed in xenografted tumors in vivo. miR-338-3p could directly bind to the 3 -untranslated region (3 -UTR) of KIFC1, and ectopic miR-338-3p expression mimicked the inhibitory functions of KIFC1 silencing on RCC cells through inactivation of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Therefore, these results revealed that KIFC1 may be a novel biomarker and an effective therapeutic target for the treatment of RCC.

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