Suppression of CCT3 inhibits the proliferation and migration in breast cancer cells.

Background: CCT3 is a subunit of chaperonin-containing TCP-1 (CCT), which folds many proteins involved in cancer development and plays an important role in many cancers. However, the role of CCT3 in breast cancer is still unclear.

Methods: CCT3 expression was knocked down by transfecting breast cancer cells with lentiviral shRNA. The proliferation of breast cancer cells (HCC1937 and MDA-MB-231) was detected by Celigo image cytometry and MTT assay, the migration of the cells was measured by Transwell analysis, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, and changes in signal transduction proteins were detected by western blot analysis.

Results: The expression of CCT3 was significantly suppressed by transduction with lentiviral shRNA; CCT3 knockdown significantly reduced the proliferation and metastasis ability of breast cancer cells (HCC 1937 and MDA-MB-231), increased the proportion of cells in S phase, and decreased the proportion of cells in G1 phase compared to those in shControl cells. There was no significant change in the number of cells in the G2/M phase. Apoptosis analysis showed that knockdown of CCT3 induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells. Western blot analysis showed that the expression of many signal transduction proteins was changed after suppression of CCT3. A rescue experiment showed that overexpression of NFκB-p65 rescued the cell proliferation and migration affected by CCT3 in breast cancer cells.

Conclusion: CCT3 is closely related to the proliferation and migration of breast cancer and may be a novel therapeutic target.