The effects of zebularine, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, on the invasion activity as well as intracellular expression level of let-7b, tumor suppressor microRNA, were examined in three human colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines: SW480, SW620, and oxaliplatin-resistant SW620 (SW620/OxR). Zebularine suppressed the invasion activity of SW620 and SW620/OxR cells. The intracellular expression level of let-7b was upregulated by zebularine in SW620 and SW620/OxR cells. The overexpression of let-7b by the transfection of let-7b mimic suppressed invasion activity in SW620 and SW620/OxR cells. These results suggest that zebularine may inhibit invasion activity by up-regulating the intracellular expression level of let-7b in high-invasive CRC cells.Key words invasion; zebularine; let-7b; oxaliplatin-resistant; colorectal cancer DNA methylation is a major epigenetic mechanism of gene expression level. Zebularine (Zeb) has been shown to inhibit DNA methyltransferase (DNMT). Furthermore, Zeb and other DNMT inhibitors, such as decitabine (DAC) and azacitidine (AC), exert differential effects on gene expression levels.1) Flotho et al. reported that Zeb did not regulate the expression levels of a large number of mRNAs or markers for genome-wide methylation.1) We previously showed that DAC suppressed invasion activity with the up-regulation of epithelial cell marker expression levels not only in parental SW620 cells, high-invasive colorectal cancer (CRC) cells, but also in oxaliplatin (L-OHP)-resistant SW620 (SW620/OxR) cells.
2)Pakneshan et al. demonstrated that AC enhanced invasion activity by up-regulating the urokinase plasminogen activator in prostate cancer.3) However, information on the effects of Zeb on invasion activity is limited.MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that suppress target mRNA, play important roles in cancer metastasis. Members of the let-7 family (let-7a, let-7b, let-7c, let-7d, let-7e, let-7f, let-7g, and let-7i in addition to miR-98 and miR-202) are tumor suppressor miRNAs. 4) Kang et al. previously reported that let-7b suppressed invasion activity in gastric cancer.5) In addition, Kahlert et al. showed that let-7b expression level in CRC tumor invasion front was lower than that in CRC tumor center.6) The expression levels of let-7 family members are also regulated by DNA methylation. The location of let-7b is in the 3′-untranslated region of MIRLET7BHG as a long intergenic noncoding RNA. 7) Nishi et al. found that intracellular expression level of let-7b may be regulated by the DNA methylation status of CpG islands near transcription start site (TSS) of MIRLET7BHG.7) Kobayashi et al. showed that let-7 family members were more abundant in exosomes, small membrane vesicles of approximately 100 nm in diameter, from high-invasive ovarian cancer cells than in those from low-invasive ovarian cancer cells.8) In addition, Wong et al. reported that the expression levels of let-7 family members were upregulated by Zeb in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. We previously demonstrated that the invasion activ...