Impact of AMPK on cervical carcinoma progression and metastasis

Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most common malignant neoplasm among women. Late diagnosis is directly associated with the incidence of metastatic disease and remarkably limits the effectiveness of conventional anticancer therapies at the advanced tumor stage. In this study, we investigated the role of 5'AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) in the metastatic progression of cervical cancer. Since the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is known as major mechanism enabling cancer cell metastasis, cell lines, which accurately represent this process, have been used as a research model. We used C-4I and HTB-35 cervical cancer cell lines representing distant stages of the disease, in which we genetically modified the expression of the AMPK catalytic subunit α. We have shown that tumor progression leads to metabolic deregulation which results in reduced expression and activity of AMPK. We also demonstrated that AMPK is related to the ability of cells to acquire invasive phenotype and potential for in vivo metastases, and its activity may inhibit these processes. Our findings support the hypothesis that AMPK is a promising therapeutic target and modulation of its expression and activity may improve the efficacy of cervical cancer treatment.