Rapamycin Inhibits Human Oral Cancer Cell Growth via the Hsa-miR-199a-3p/mTOR Pathway

Oral cancer is one of the 10 most common cancers in the world, which brings heavy burden for public health. Although several drugs were recommended to treat oral cancer, while it is needed to investigate the pathogenesis and develop novel treatment for this type of cancer. In the study, two oral cancer cell lines including HSC-6 and CAL-27 were used. It was found that rapamycin potently inhibited proliferation of HSC-6 and CAL-27 cells. Rapamycin significantly induced apoptosis and reduced cell viability of HSC-6 and CAL-27 cells. Rapamycin inhibited growth of oral cancer cells via mTOR. Moreover, it was found that mTOR was highly expresses in PBMC of oral cancer patients compared with PBMC of healthy controls. Rapamycin increased expression of miR-199a-3p and miR-199-3p was highly expression in oral cancer patients. Importantly, it was confirmed that rapamycin suppressed proliferation and promoted apoptosis of oral cancer cells via miR-199a-3p. The findings of the present study will provide useful insights for developing novel therapies of oral cancer.