Suppression of CCT3 inhibits tumor growth by downregulating CDK1 expression in melanoma

The members of the eukaryotic chaperonin family are essential for cell survival. The dysregulation of chaperonin-containing TCP-1 subunit 3 (CCT3) is implicated in the development of several types of malignant tumors. However, its functional role in melanoma remains unknown. Herein, we elucidated the functional contribution of CCT3 to melanoma progression. The results indicated that CCT3 was frequently upregulated in melanoma tissues, and high level of CCT3 is correlated with clinical stage in melanoma patients. Knockdown of CCT3 in melanoma cells markedly inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis in vitro and suppressed tumorigenesis in a mouse xenograft model. We also identified the cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) as a downstream effector of CCT3 and further evaluation demonstrated that suppression of CCT3 attenuates cell proliferation via downregulating CDK1 expression and CCT3-mediated regulation of cell cycle signaling pathway in melanoma. Collectively, our results provide compelling evidence that CCT3 contributes to melanoma progression via CDK1 and is a potential therapeutic target for melanoma A-375 cells infected with NC lentivirus and CCT3 knockdown lentivirus were prepeared and cultured for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. A potential target cct3 was found in clinical samples of melanoma. In order to elucidated its functional contribution, we knocked down cct3 and verified it in vivo and in vitro. We also identified the CDK1 as a downstream effector of CCT3 by affymetrix microarrays.