The development of chemotherapeutic drugs resistance such as doxorubicin (DOX) and cisplatin (DDP) is the major barrier in gastric cancer therapy. Emerging evidences reveal that microRNAs (miRNAs) contribute to chemosensitivity. In this study, we investigated the role of miR-633, an oncogenic miRNA, in gastric cancer chemoresistance. In gastric cancer tissue and cell lines, miR-633 expression was highly increased and correlated with down regulation of Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD). Inhibition of miR-633 significantly increased FADD protein level and enhanced DOX/DDP induced apoptosis in vitro. MiR-633 antagomir administration remarkably decreased tumor growth in combination with DOX in vivo, suggesting that miR-633 targets FADD to block gastric cancer cell death. We found that the promoter region of miR-633 contained putative binding sites for forkhead box O 3 (Foxo3a), which can directly repress miR-633 transcription. In addition, we observed that DOX-induced nuclear accumulation of Foxo3a leaded to the suppression of miR-633 transcription. Together, our study revealed that miR-633/FADD axis played a significant role in the chemoresistance and Foxo3a regulated this pathway in gastric cancer. Thus, miR-633 antagomir resensitized gastric cancer cells to chemotherapy drug and had potentially therapeutic implication.
Keywords: FADD; Foxo3a; chemosensitivity; gastric cancer; miR-633.