The Wnt/β-catenin pathway serves important roles in cancer development. The expression and function of Chibby (Cby), as a direct antagonist of β-catenin, in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has not been fully investigated. The present study revealed that the mRNA and protein expression of Cby was significantly lower in NPC tissue than in the adjacent normal tissue. Low expression of Cby was significantly associated with the tumor and the clinical staging. Furthermore, Cby overexpression inhibited the proliferation of human NPC SUNE1 cells and induced cell cycle arrest. In addition, Cby overexpression also significantly enhanced the susceptibility of SUNE1 cells to apoptosis. These results indicated that Cby might serve as an anti-oncogenic gene in the development of NPC and could represent a potential therapeutic target for the human NPC therapy.
Keywords: Chibby; Wnt/β-catenin; apoptosis; cell cycle; nasopharyngeal carcinoma.