Effect of TRIM14 on proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of cervical cancer cells and its mechanism

Objective: To investigate the effect of tripartite motif-containing protein 14 (TRIM14) on proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of cervical cancer cells and its related mechanism.Methods: Cervical cancer tissue and adjacent normal cervical tissue samples of 40 patients with cervical cancer were collected and the expression of TRIM14 was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).Cervical cancer HeLa cells were cultured in vitro and small interfering RNA (si-TRIM14) was transfected into HeLa cells.Cell proliferation was detected by cell counting kit (CCK-8), cell migration was detected by scratch test, cell invasion was detected by transwell chamber assay, and the expressions of EMT related protein and proteins associated with adenosine monophosphate protein kinase (AMPK) /rapamycin target protein (mTOR) signaling pathway were detected by western blotting.Results: The expression of TRIM14 mRNA in cervical cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal cervical tissues (P＜ 0.05).Compared with si-NC group, cell proliferation activity, cell mobility and the number of invasive cells in si-TRIM14 group decreased, the expression of E-cadherin protein increased, and the expressions of N-cadherin, vimentin and Snail1 protein decreased (P＜ 0.05).The P-AMPK/AMPK ratio in si-TRIM14 group was higher than that in si-NC group, and the P-MTOR/mTOR ratio was lower than that in si-NC group (P＜ 0.05).Conclusion: TRIM14 is highly expressed in cervical cancer tissues, and interfering with the expression of TRIM14 can inhibit EMT by regulating AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway, thus inhibiting the proliferation, migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells.