Omethoate induces pharyngeal cancer cell proliferation and G1/S cell cycle progression by activation of Akt/GSK-3β/cyclin D1 signaling pathway.
Omethoate is a broad category of organophosphorous pesticides (OPs) and has toxic effects on human health under long-term, low-dose exposure. However, the role of omethoate in cancer development remains elusive. The incidence of global head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) has markedly increased in recent years. Thus, we examined whether omethoate induced the proliferation of FaDu cells (a cell line of HNSCC) and if so, what the underlying mechanism was. The study revealed that omethoate induced FaDu cell growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Omethoate stimulated FaDu cell proliferation was mainly due to enhancing the G1 to S phase transition by flow cytometry analysis. We also found that omethoate up-regulated cyclin D1, a key gene controlling the G1-S transition. Furthermore, we showed that omethoate was capable of activating the Akt/GSK-3β signaling pathway. Blockage of Akt by siRNA or small molecule inhibitor significantly suppressed omethoate-induced cyclin D1 expression and cell proliferation. Collectively, these findings demonstrated for the first time that omethoate could induce the pharyngeal cancer cell proliferation by activation of the Akt/GSK-3β/cyclin D1 signaling pathway.