Ovarian cancer (OC) is the second most common gynecologic malignancy, but its mortality ranks the highest in the world. Pim1, belongs to a group of constitutively activated serine/threonine kinases, has been reported in many types of cancer. Little is known about Pim1 in OC.
The protein expression of Pim1 was verified from the human protein atlas (
Silencing/overexpressing of Pim1 suppressed/promoted OC cells proliferation in vitro. Pim1 significantly influenced glycolysis by OC cells and was associated with p-c-myc protein levels and subsequent c-myc regulated key enzymes (such as PGK1, LDHA) in the glycolytic pathway. Pim1-knockdown also inhibited ovarian tumor growth in vivo. Moreover, Pim1 inhibitor SMI4a exerted chemosensitizing effects on cisplatin. Pim1 was also overexpressed in ovarian cancer and correlated with the poor overall survival of patients by bioinformatics analysis.
Together, these results suggest that Pim1 contributes to OC proliferation and glycolysis through p-c-myc axis, which may serve as a potential target for OC patients.
Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center
Has not received any funding
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.