UBR5 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in colon cancer by destablizing P21.

UBR5 is recently recognized as a key player in a large number of prevalent cancers. In this study, we sought to explore the connection of UBR5 expression with cell proliferation, apoptosis, as well as the regulation mechanism in colon cancer cell line. SiUBR5 or oeUBR5 were separately applied to interfere the expression of UBR5. Western blot, DNA gel electrophoresis and qPCR were performed to detect the expression of UBR5 at mRNA and protein level. Then MTT and flow cytometry were used to explore the proliferation and apoptosis in a colon cancer cell line in vitro. Finally, we explored the interaction and correlation of UBR5 and P21 in the colon cancer regulation. We found that UBR5 was highly expressed in colon cancer not only at mRNA level but also at protein level. Moreover, UBR5 can promote the growth of colon cancer cells, and inhibit apoptosis. The mechanism exploration proved that UBR5 can degrade P21 via ubiquitination. All these findings suggest that UBR5 may be involved in progression of colon cancer and could be a new therapeutic target for this disease.