Interfering with the expression of EEF1D gene enhances the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin

BACKGROUND: Eukaryotic translation elongation factors 1 δ (EEF1D), has garnered much attention with regards to their role in the drug resistance of cancers. In this paper, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of increasing the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin or cis-dichlorodiammine platinum (DDP) by knockdown and knockout of EEF1D gene in cellular and animal models. METHODS: The EEF1D gene was knocked-down or -out by siRNA or CRISPR/Cas9 respectively in human ovarian cancer cell SKOV3, DDP-resistant subline SKOV3/DDP, and EEF1D gene in human primary ovarian cancer cell from 5 ovarian cancer patients with progressive disease/stable disease (PD/SD) was transiently knocked down by siRNA interference. The mice model bearing xenografted tumor was established with subcutaneous inoculation of SKOV3/DDP. RESULTS: The results show that reducing or removing EEF1D gene expression significantly increased the sensitivity of human ovarian cancer cells to DDP in inhibiting viability and inducing apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, and also boosted DDP to inhibit xenografted tumor growth. Interfering with EEF1D gene expression in mice xenografted tumor significantly affected the levels of OPTN, p-Akt, Bcl-2, Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and ERCC1 compared to DDP treated mice alone, and had less effect on PI3K, Akt and caspase-3. CONCLUSIONS: The knocking down or out EEF1D gene expression could enhance the sensitivity of ovarian cancer cells to DDP partially, which may be achieved via inactivating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, thus inducing cell apoptosis and decreasing repairment of DNA damage. Our study provides a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of ovarian cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-09699-7.