Effects of arecoline on proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells by dysregulating c-Myc and miR-22, directly targeting oncostatin M

Arecoline, the major alkaloid of areca nut, is known to induce oral carcinogenesis, however, its mechanism is still needed to elucidate. This study investigated the effects of arecoline on cell viability and cell-cycle progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells as well as a relevant cellular gene expression. The results showed that a low concentration of arecoline (0.025 μg/ml) increased OSCC cell viability, proportion of cells in G2/M phase and cell proliferation. Simultaneously, it induced IL-6, STAT3 and c-Myc expression. Interestingly, c-myc promoter activity was also induced by arecoline. MiR-22 expression in arecoline-treated OSCC cells was suppressed and comparable to an upregulated c-Myc expression. In arecoline-treated OSCC cells, oncostatin M (OSM) expression was significantly upregulated and inversely correlated with miR-22 expression. Likewise, OSM expression and its post-transcriptional activity were significantly decreased in miR-22-transfected OSCC and 293FT cells. This result demonstrated that miR-22 directly targeted OSM. Interestingly, miR-22 played an important role as a tumor suppresser on suppressing cell proliferation, migration and cell-cycle progression of OSCC cells. This result suggested the effect of arecoline to promote cell proliferation and cell-cycle progression of OSCC cells might be involved in induction of c-Myc expression and reduction of miR-22 resulting in OSM upregulation.