UBE2C functions as a potential oncogene by enhancing cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and drug resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Recently, ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2C (UBE2C) has been reported to be over-expressed in human cancers and act as a potential oncogene. However, little is known about the functional roles of UBE2C in HCC progression. In the present study, analysis of UBE2C mRNA expression in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset reveals that significantly higher UBE2C mRNA levels was found in HCC tissues and associated with higher HCC grade. Elevated UBE2C mRNA levels in HCC indicated worsened survival probabilities. Through performing loss-of-function assays, we demonstrated that knockdown of UBE2C expression obviously suppressed proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells in vitro. Moreover, HCC cells with UBE2C knockdown showed higher sensitivity for the treatment of chemotherapeutic drug, including adriamycin (ADR) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Silencing of UBE2C also increased the sensitivity of HCC cells to sorafenib, an approved treatment for patients with advanced-stage HCC. Our findings strongly suggest that UBE2C emerges as a marker for prognosis in HCC, and blocking UBE2C may be a novel strategy for HCC therapies.