Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Mta3 Represses Cancer Stemness By Targeting The Sox2ot/Sox2 Axis, Liang Du, Lu Wang, Jinfeng Gan, Zhimeng Yao, Wan Lin, Junkuo Li, Yi Guo, Yuping Chen, Fuyou Zhou, Sai-Ching Jim Yeung, Robert P Coppes, Dianzheng Zhang, Hao Zhang

PCOM Scholarly Works

Cancer cell stemness (CCS) plays critical roles in both malignancy maintenance and metastasis, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms are far from complete. Although the importance of SOX2 in cancer development and CCS are well recognized, the role of MTA3 in these processes is unknown. In this study, we used esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as a model system to demonstrate that MTA3 can repress both CCS and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, by forming a repressive complex with GATA3, MTA3 downregulates SOX2OT, subsequently suppresses the SOX2OT/SOX2 axis, and ultimately represses CCS and metastasis. More importantly, MTA3