Propofol promotes apoptosis and suppresses the HOTAIR-mediated mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway in melanoma cells

Propofol is an intravenous anesthetic, which is widely used in clinical anesthesia induction and maintenance and is critical in the sedation of patients. However, the functions and mechanisms of propofol on apoptosis of melanoma cells remain unclear. The present study investigated whether propofol promotes cell apoptosis and suppresses the HOX transcript antisense RNA (HOTAIR)-mediated mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in melanoma cells. B16F10 cells were cultured with different concentrations (0-10 µM) of propofol for 24 or 48 h. Proliferation and apoptosis of B16F10 cells were detected using MTT assay and flow cytometry. The pcDNA 3.1(-)-HOTAIR and pcDNA 3.1(-)-control plasmids were transfected into B16F10 cells using Lipofectamine 2000. In the present study, treatment with propofol significantly reduced viability, and induced apoptosis and caspase-3 activity in melanoma cells. Propofol treatment significantly inhibited HOTAIR expression and the expression of phosphorylated (p)-mTOR and p- p70S6K protein in melanoma cells. Overexpression of HOTAIR significantly increased viability of melanoma cells, and increased HOTAIR, p-mTOR and p-p70S6K protein expression in melanoma cells. These results indicated that propofol promotes apoptosis and suppresses the HOTAIR-mediated mTOR signaling pathway in melanoma cells.