Objective To investigate the effect of methyltransferase-like 14 (METTL14) on the proliferation and metastasis of cervical cancer cells and its possible molecular mechanism. Methods The expression of METTL14 and Myc in cervical cancer tissues and normal tissues were analyzed using Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and cervical cancer tissue microarray. The expression of METTL14 in HeLa and SiHa cells was silenced by small interfering RNA. After silencing the expression of METTL14 in cervical cancer HeLa and SiHa cells by RNA interference (RNAi), real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to verify the effect. CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay were adopted to detect cell proliferation and colony forming ability. Transwell assay was employed to evaluate cell migration ability. After knocking out METTL14, Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of METTL14 and Myc. Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation-qPCR (MeRIP-qPCR) was applied to observe the expression of mA Myc in HeLa cells in each group. Results GEO database analysis and cervical cancer tissue microarray staining showed that the expression of METTL14 and Myc in cervical cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues, and the survival time of cervical cancer patients with high expression of METTL14 was shorter. Silencing METTL14 can significantly inhibit the cell viability, proliferation and migration of cervical cancer HeLa and SiHa cells, and its mechanism of action may be related to the up-regulation of the expression of mA Myc by METTL14. Conclusion METTL14 promotes the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer cells by up-regulating the expression of mA Myc.

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