MAP4K4 mediates the SOX6-induced autophagy and reduces the chemosensitivity of cervical cancer

There are nearly 40% of cervical cancer patients showing poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy that can be induced by autophagy, however, the underlying mechanism has not yet been fully clarified. We previously found that Sex-determining region of Y-related high-mobility-group box 6 (SOX6), a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene in several cancers, could induce autophagy in cervical cancer. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the mechanism of SOX6-induced autophagy and its potential significance in the platinum-based chemotherapy of cervical cancer. Firstly, we found that SOX6 could promote autophagy in cervical cancer cells depending on its HMG domain. Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase-4 (MAP4K4) gene was identified as the direct target gene of SOX6, which was transcriptionally upregulated by binding the HMG domain of SOX6 protein to its double-binding sites within MAP4K4 gene promoter. MAP4K4 mediated the SOX6-induced autophagy through inhibiting PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway and activating MAPK/ERK pathway. Further, the sensitivity of cervical cancer cells to cisplatin chemotherapy could be reduced by the SOX6-induced autophagy in vitro and in vivo, while such a phenomenon could be turned over by autophagy-specific inhibitor and MAP4K4 inhibitor, respectively. Moreover, cisplatin itself could promote the expression of endogenous SOX6 and subsequently the MAP4K4-mediated autophagy in cervical cancer cells, which might in turn reduce the sensitivity of these cells to cisplatin treatment. These findings uncovered the underlying mechanism and potential significance of SOX6-induced autophagy, and shed new light on the usage of MAP4K4 inhibitor or autophagy-specific inhibitor for sensitizing cervical cancer cells to the platinum-based chemotherapy.