Chitosan targets PI3K/Akt/FoxO3a axis to up-regulate FAM172A and suppress MAPK/ERK pathway to exert anti-tumor effect in osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a serve and the most frequent primary malignant tumor of bone. Chitosan was reported to have anti-tumor effect on human cancers including OS. However, the molecular mechanism by which chitosan suppresses tumor growth is not fully illustrated. In this study, human OS cell lines, including both Saos-2 and U2OS cells, were used to dissect the underlying mechanisms. RNA sequencing results show that a candidate biomarker family with sequence similarity 172 member A (FAM172A) was up-regulated in both of the two cell lines treated with chitosan. We observed that the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway could be inactivated by chitosan, and the MAPK inhibition caused by chitosan was reversed by FAM172A knockdown. Moreover, we uncovered a direct interaction between C-terminal domain of FAM172A (311-415) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MEK1) (270-307) by immunoprecipitation assay. Finally, we also found that chitosan could bind with subunit p85 of PI3K to further inactivate the PI3K/Akt pathway. Taken together, our study demonstrates that chitosan binds with PI3K p85 subunit to suppress the activity of PI3K/Akt pathway to up-regulate the expression of FAM172A, and which exerts its function by suppressing phosphorylation of MEK1/2 and blocking the activity of MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. Taken together, our study deepens the understanding of the molecular mechanism of MAPK/ERK pathway inhibition induced by chitosan, and provides insights into the development of new targets to enhance the pharmacological effect of chitosan against OS.