Research Paper|Volume 14, Issue 4|pp 2004—2013

MKRN2 inhibits the proliferation of gastric cancer by downregulating PKM2

Zheng Liu¹, Shuyao Xiang², Xingchen Guo¹, Jinghuan Zhou¹, Lixin Liao¹, Jiaxin Kou¹, Jun Zhang³

¹The Second Hospital of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China
²School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, P.R. China
³Chongqing High-Tech Zone People’s Hospital, Chongqing 400000, P.R. China

* Equal contribution

Received: July 27, 2020Accepted: February 1, 2021Published: February 23, 2022

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203643

Copyright: © 2022 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Cumulative evidence suggests that dysfunction of ubiquitinating enzymes is responsible for multiple types of diseases including cancer. However, what role the ubiquitinating enzyme plays in gastric cancer remains unknown. In this study, using bioinformatics analysis and a series of experimental analyses, we found that an E3 ubiquitin-protein, MKRN2 was down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed the low MKRN2 expression significantly indicated poor prognosis. Overexpression of MKRN2 notably inhibited cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Conversely, knockdown of MKRN2 had the opposite effects in vitro. Additionally, the mechanical analysis indicated that MKRN2 promoted ubiquitination-mediated degradation of PKM2 and attenuated its effect on ERK. Overall, the present study suggests that MKRN2 may be a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.