Effects of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists on Biological Behavior of Colorectal Cancer Cells by Regulating PI3K/AKT/mTOR Signaling Pathway

Front Pharmacol. 2022 Aug 10:13:901559. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.901559. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has become one of the top ten malignant tumors with a high incidence rate and mortality. Due to the lack of a good CRC screening program, most of the CRC patients are being transferred at the time of treatment. The conventional treatment cannot effectively improve the prognosis of CRC patients, and the target drugs can significantly prolong the overall survival of patients in the advanced stage. However, the use of single drug may lead to acquired drug resistance and various serious complications. Therefore, combined targeted drug therapy is the main alternative treatment with poor effect of single targeted drug therapy, which has important research significance for the treatment of CRC. Therefore, this study intends to culture CRC cell lines in vitro at the cell level and intervene with the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide. The effects of liraglutide on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway and CRC cell proliferation, cycle, migration, invasion, and apoptosis are explored by detecting cell proliferation, cycle, migration, invasion, and apoptosis and the expression of related mRNA and protein. The results showed that liraglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, could block the CRC cell cycle, reduce cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and promote apoptosis by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway.

Keywords: GLP-1 receptor agonist; PI3K/AKT/mTOR; apoptosis; colorectal cancer; liraglutide; migration.