The m6A-suppressed P2RX6 activation promotes renal cancer cells migration and invasion through ATP-induced Ca2+ influx modulating ERK1/2 phosphorylation and MMP9 signaling pathway

• Main Authors: Dongkui Gong, Jin Zhang, Yonghui Chen, Yunfei Xu, Junjie Ma, Guanghui Hu, Yiran Huang, Junhua Zheng, Wei Zhai, Wei Xue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-06-01
• Series: Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
• Subjects: Renal cell carcinoma; P2RX6; m6A; Ca2+; p-ERK1/2/MMP9
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13046-019-1223-y

Abstract Background Previous study demonstrated that extracellular ATP could promote cell migration and invasion in multiple human cancers. Till now, the pro-invasive mechanisms of ATP and P2RX6, a preferred receptor for ATP, are still poorly studied in RCC. Methods Bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify the differentially expressed genes during RCC different stages. Tissue microarray, IHC staining and survival analysis was respectively used to evaluate potential clinical function. In vitro and in vivo assays were performed to explore the P2RX6 biological effects in RCC progression. Results We found that ATP might increase RCC cells migration and invasion through P2RX6. Mechanism dissection revealed that ATP-P2RX6 might modulate the Ca2+-mediated p-ERK1/2/MMP9 signaling to increase the RCC cells migration and invasion. Furthermore, METTL14 implicated m6A modification in RCC and down-regulated P2RX6 protein translation. In addition, human clinical survey also indicated the positive correlation of this newly identified signaling in RCC progression and prognosis. Conclusions Our findings revealed that the newly identified ATP-P2RX6-Ca2+-p-ERK1/2-MMP9 signaling facilitates RCC cell invasion and metastasis. Targeting this novel signaling pathway with small molecules might help us to develop a new approach to better suppress RCC progression.