Hey1 promotes migration and invasion of melanoma cells via GRB2/PI3K/AKT signaling cascade

Increasing evidence indicates that Notch signaling regulates multiple intracellular biological processes in malignant melanoma. Whereas how Notch signaling is transduced to influence melanoma cell behaviors remains largely elusive. Here we show that the Notch signaling downstream target Hey1 promotes migration and invasion of melanoma cells via the GRB2/PI3K/AKT pathway. First, bioinformatics tools, immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting analysis showed that the expression of Hey1 is increased in melanoma. Then, both in vivo and in vitro experiments showed that Hey1 promotes the malignant behaviour of the melanoma cells. High-throughput RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that inhibition of Hey1 results in decreased GRB2 expression in melanoma cells. Last, functional experiments confirmed that Hey1 positively regulates GRB2/PI3K/AKT pathway to influence migration and invasion of melanoma cells. In summary, our results suggest that Hey1 promotes the invasion and metastasis of melanoma cells by regulating GRB2/PI3K/AKT pathway. Our study provides potential therapeutics in tumor biology.