Quantitative Proteomics Reveals That the Inhibition of Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase Activity Affects S-Phase Progression Leading to a Chromosome Segregation Disorder by Attenuating the Aurora A Function in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

Abstract

Many studies have shown the Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase (NKA) might be a potential target for anticancer therapy. Cardiac glycosides (CGs), as a family of naturally compounds, inhibited the NKA activity. The present study investigates the antitumor effect of ouabain and elucidates the pharmacological mechanisms of CG activity in liver cancer HepG2 cell using SILAC coupled to LC-MS/MS method. Bioinformatics analysis of 330 proteins that were changed in cells under treatment with 0.5 μmol/L ouabain showed that the biological processes are associated with an acute inflammatory response, cell cycle, oxidation reduction, chromosome segregation, and DNA metabolism. We confirmed that ouabain induced chromosome segregation disorder and S-cell cycle block by decreasing the expression of AURKA, SMC2, Cyclin D, and p-CDK1 as well as increasing the expression of p53. We found that the overexpression or inhibition of AURKA significantly reduced or enhanced the ouabain-mediated the anticancer effects. Our findings suggest that AURKA is involved in the anticancer mechanisms of ouabain in HepG2 cells.