Basic Study
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World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2020; 12(5): 514-525
Published online May 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i5.514
Free fatty acids receptors 2 and 3 control cell proliferation by regulating cellular glucose uptake
Saeed Al Mahri, Amal Al Ghamdi, Maaged Akiel, Monira Al Aujan, Sameer Mohammad, Mohammad Azhar Aziz
Saeed Al Mahri, Amal Al Ghamdi, Maaged Akiel, Monira Al Aujan, Sameer Mohammad, Mohammad Azhar Aziz, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Saeed Al Mahri, Amal Al Ghamdi, Maaged Akiel, Monira Al Aujan, Sameer Mohammad, Mohammad Azhar Aziz, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Saeed Al Mahri, Amal Al Ghamdi, Monira Al Aujan, Sameer Mohammad, Mohammad Azhar Aziz, Ministry of the National Guard - Health Affairs, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Saeed Al Mahri, Sameer Mohammad, Department of Experimental Medicine, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Amal Al Ghamdi, Mohammad Azhar Aziz, Colorectal Cancer Research Program, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Maaged Akiel, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Maaged Akiel, Monira Al Aujan, Department of Medical Genomics, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Maaged Akiel, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, United States
Author contributions: Mohammad S and Aziz MA conceived the idea and designed research; Al Mahri S and Akiel M generated knockdown cell lines; Al Mahri S and Al Ghamdi A performed qRT-PCR assays; Al Mahri S and Mohammad S performed glucose uptake, cAMP signalling and immunofluorescence studies; Al Ghamdi A performed western blots and cell proliferation assay; Akiel M designed primers; Al Aujan M Assisted in maintaining knockdown cells; Aziz MA, Al Mahri S, Akiel M and Mohammad S analyzed data; Aziz MA, Akiel M and Mohammad S prepared final figures, wrote and edited the paper; Aziz MA carried out microarray and qRT-PCR analyses; All authors reviewed and endorsed all contents of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by Institutional Research Board of King Abdullah International Medical Research Center through protocol number RC15/153.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: This patient microarray dataset is available on Gene Expression Omnibus, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Institute of Health, United States (Accession: GSE 50421).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mohammad Azhar Aziz, BSc, MSc, PhD, Research Scientist, Colorectal Cancer Research Program, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, P.O. Box 3660, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia. azizmo@ngha.med.sa
Received: December 17, 2019
Peer-review started: December 17, 2019
First decision: February 20, 2020
Revised: March 18, 2020
Accepted: March 28, 2020
Article in press: March 28, 2020
Published online: May 15, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: Free fatty acid receptors (FFAR) have been reported to be associated with colorectal cancer (CRC). In this report, we studied short chain FFAR2 and FFAR3 and have provided preliminary evidence about the possible involvement of increased glucose uptake in FFAR2 and FFAR3 knockdown clones of CRC cell line. We generated double knock down for FFAR2 and FFAR3 genes in a CRC cell line (HCT116) and studied possible mechanisms of increased cell proliferation in these cells.