Abstract: Objective To study the effects of Twist gene silencing on human triple-negative breast cancer Hs578T cell migration and invasion and its potential mechanisms. Methods The lentiviral vectors with Twist gene-targeted specific shRNA and the negative control were constructed, then transfected into the human triple-negative breast cancer cell line Hs578T to establish the stable cell lines of Twist gene silencing. The blank group (blank), negative control group (shNC) and Twist gene silencing group (shTwist) were set up. After screening by puromycin, the fluorescence expression and the infection efficiency of each group cells were observed by inverted fluorescence microscope. The expression of Twsit mRNA and protein level was detected by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot. Transwell migration and invasion experiments were performed to measure cell migration and invasion abilities, respectively. Western blot was used to detect the levels of p-AKT, AKT, p-ERK1/2 and ERK1/2 proteins. Results Twist gene was successfully knockdown in human triple-negative breast cancer cell line Hs578T. Compared with the blank group and shNC group cells, the cell migration and invasion ability of the shTwist group cells were decreased significantly (p<0.05, p<0.05), and the expression of Twist downstream p-AKT and p-ERK1/2 proteins were also reduced notably in the shTwist group cells (p<0.05, p<0.05). Conclusions Twist promotes cell migration and invasion via AKT/ERK signaling axis in human triple-negative breast cancer cell line Hs578T.

Key words: Twist, breast cancer, cell migration, cell invasion