Acylglycerol kinase promotes the stemness of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells by promoting β-catenin translocation to the nucleus through activating PI3K/Akt pathway.

Recent evidences show that acylglycerol kinase (AGK) expression is related to the occurrence and development of various human cancers. However, its roles in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) progression are still unclear. This work aims to explore the roles of AGK in NPC cell stemness. It was shown that AGK expression was higher in NPC tissues compared to the adjacent tissues. Online dataset analysis revealed that AGK expression was negatively correlated with the overall survival of NPC patients. Gain and loss of functional experiments demonstrated that AGK positively regulated the stemness of NPC cells, as evident by the change of the tumor sphere-formation ability, ALDH1 activity and expression of stemness critical regulators. KEGG analysis were performed to determine the potential pathways of AGK involved in NPC cell stemness and showed that the PI3K/Akt pathway exhibited the most correlation with AGK expression. Further mechanistic studies confirmed that AGK promoted the stemness of NPC cells through activating the PI3K/Akt pathway, and thus enhancing β-catenin accumulation in nucleus. This study demonstrates a novel AGK/PI3K/Akt/β-catenin axis involving in NPC cell stemness.

Zhao Q ，Sun P ，Qin S ，Liu J ... -  《-》

Acylglycerol kinase promotes tumour growth and metastasis via activating the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signalling pathway in renal cell carcinoma.

Zhu Q ，Zhong AL ，Hu H ，Zhao JJ ，Weng DS ，Tang Y ，Pan QZ ，Zhou ZQ ，Song MJ ，Yang JY ，He JY ，Liu Y ，Li M ，Hu WM ，Yang CP ，Xiang T ，Chen MY ，Ma G ，Guo L ，Xia JC ... -  《Journal of Hematology & Oncology》

FOXD3 inhibits cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in nasopharyngeal carcinoma through regulation of the PI3K-Akt pathway.

Xie X ，Xiong G ，Chen W ，Fu H ，Li M ，Cui X ... -  《-》

MicroRNA-192 promotes the development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma through targeting RB1 and activating PI3K/AKT pathway.

Huang Q ，Hou S ，Zhu X ，Liu S ... -  《World Journal of Surgical Oncology》

MiR-155 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells through targeting PTEN-PI3K/AKT pathway.

Zuo WN ，Zhu H ，Li LP ，Jin AY ，Wang HQ ... -  《-》