MicroRNA‑433 inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in human cervical cancer through PI3K/AKT signaling by targeting FAK

The present study aimed to examine the role of microRNA‑433 in the growth and death of cervical cancer cells. RNA isolation, reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis, an MTT assay, flow cytometry, and western blot analysis were used for this investigation. The results showed that the expression of microRNA‑433 was downregulated in patients with cervical cancer. The disease‑free survival and overall survival rates of patients with low expression levels of microRNA‑433 were lower, compared with those in patients with high expression levels of microRNA‑433. The expression levels of microRNA‑433 were downregulated in cervical cancer in vitro. It was found that the downregulation of microRNA‑433 promoted the growth and inhibited the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells through activating focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/phosphoinositide 3‑kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling. However, the upregulation of microRNA‑433 induced apoptosis and suppressed the growth of cervical cancer cells through inhibiting the FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In addition, FAK or PI3K inhibitors promoted the death of cervical cancer cells following the downregulation of microRNA‑433. These results revealed that microRNA‑433 suppressed the growth of cervical cancer cells via the FAK/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.