Sulfated polysaccharide of Sepiella Maindroni ink inhibits the migration, invasion and matrix metalloproteinase-2 expression through suppressing EGFR-mediated p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways in SKOV-3 cells.

Previous studies demonstrated that SIP-SII, a sulfated derivative of SIP that is isolated from the ink of Sepiella maindroni, showed significant inhibition of tumor growth and metastasis. In this study, the effects of SIP-SII on the migration, invasion and molecular mechanism in ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV-3 cells, were investigated. The flow cytometry, confocal microscope observation, western blot and RT-PCR results indicated that SIP-SII located on cell membrane and inhibited the expression and activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Moreover, the binding capacity of SIP-SII with EGFR was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis and co-localization of EGFR and SIP-SII. Accordingly, SIP-SII was proved to attenuate the EGF-induced EGFR phosphorylation and migration by western blot and wound healing assay, respectively. Additionally, SIP-SII inhibited p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways in SKOV-3 cells significantly. What is more, SIP-SII showed amplified inhibitory activity on migration, invasion, and MMP-2 expression in combination with p38-specific inhibitor, PI3K-specific inhibitor or mTOR-specific inhibitor in SKOV-3 cells. Therefore, the mechanism that SIP-SII suppressed EGFR-mediated p38/MAPK and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathways to inhibit migration and invasion of SKOV-3 cells was demonstrated. These findings suggested that SIP-SII might be used as a potential inhibitor against tumor metastasis.