Radiotherapy is the most successful nonsurgical treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NCP). Although NPCs initially respond well to a full course of radiation, recurrence and metastasis are frequent. In this study, we found that down-regulated c-MYB expression was associated with increased radiation resistance and DNA damage repair ability. Interestingly, c-MYB was over-expressed in cancer tissues but not in the adjacent tissues. Down-regulation of c-MYB expression inhibited cell proliferation, and led to cell cycle arrest at the M phase in NPC cells. Luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that c-MYB transactivated miR-143 through direct binding to its promoter. Based on these results, c-MYB might target miR-143 in order to regulate stem cell properties, cell growth, apoptosis, and DNA damage repair.
Keywords: Cancer stem cell; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Radio-resistivity; c-MYB; miR-143.
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