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. 2015 Jul 2;6:7353. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8353

Figure 7. Downregulation of EBV-miR-BART1 attenuates cell mobility, PTEN-dependent signalling and EMT of EBV-positive NPC cells.

Figure 7

(a) Downregulation of EBV-miR-BART1 by the BART1 inhibitor decreased the cell migration of HONE1-EBV-positive cells. (b) Downregulation of EBV-miR-BART1 by the BART1 inhibitor reduced the cell invasion of HONE1-EBV-positive cells. (c) Downregulation of EBV-miR-BART1 by the BART1 inhibitor increased the protein expressions of PTEN and E-cadherin but decreased the expressions of p-Akt, p-FAK, p-ERK1/2, N-cadherin and vimentin in HONE1-EBV-positive cells. (d) A proposed model demonstrating the role of EBV-miR-BART1 in NPC metastasis. EBV latently infected >90% of human population. Under certain circumstances, particularly at advanced stages of NPC, EBV produced a great amount of BART miRNAs including EVB-miR-BART1. BART1 miRNA directly targets host PTEN, one of the major tumour suppressor and reduces the PTEN dosage, resulting in the activation of PTEN-dependent pathways including PI3K-Akt, FAK-p130Cas and Shc-MAPK/ERK1/2 signalling. Consequently, BART1 miRNA compels actin cytoskeleton rearrangement and EMT, thus impelling the migration, invasion and metastasis of NPC. Original magnification, × 200; scale bar, 25 μm. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett's multiple comparison test, mean±s.e.m., N=3, ***P<0.001.