Effect of AKT silence on malignant biological behavior of renal cell carcinoma cells

BACKGROUND: As the most common malignant tumor of primary renal tumor, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the highly invasive disease with high mortality. AKT is a serine/threonine kinase that play a critical role in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway, and it is an attractive target for RCC treatment. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of AKT silence on malignant behavior of renal cell carcinoma cells. METHODS: AKT expression was quantified by immunohistochemistry in tumor tissues and normal tissues. The human RCC cell lines Caki-2 cell were chosen for this study. The optimal silencing siRNA was subsequently selected by RT-qPCR and western blot. The effect of AKT silence on RCC cells was investigated by CCK8 assay, transwell assay, scratch test and flow cytometry. The AKT1 expression in human renal cell carcinoma tissue was detected by immunohistochemical staining. RESULTS: The AKT in Caki-2 cells was silenced successfully. The results shown AKT silence could inhibit cell proliferation, invasion, and, migration. In addition, AKT silence could promote Caki-2 cell apoptosis with prevention of RCC cells move from G1 phase to S phase. Immunohistochemical staining revealed significant difference of expression of AKT1 in RCC tissues and normal renal tissues. Taken together, AKT family members might involve in malignant growth of RCC, and might be a potential therapeutic target. CONCLUSION: Our data show that AKT silence inhibited cell proliferation, invasion, and, migration of Caki-2 cell, and promoted Caki-2 cell apoptosis. Moreover, AKT silence prevented RCC cells move from G1 phase to S phase. Therefore, AKT may act as an effective therapeutic target for RCC. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12894-022-01087-4.