dicer inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting the interleukin 6 pathway

Background: inflammatory cytokines are related to the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc). objectives: interleukin 6 (il-6) is associated with the occurrence and prognosis of hcc, while dicer inhibits hcc; accordingly, we checked whether dicer regulates hcc by modulating the il-6 pathway. methods: the hcc cells of smmc-7721 transfected with dicer overexpression (pcmv-dicer) and control (pcmv-nc) lentivirus were divided into 3 groups: the smmc-7721, pcmv-nc, and pcmv-dicer groups. the assays of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were performed using cell counting, wound scratch, and transwell chamber assay. the il-6 level was measured by flow cytometry bead-based immunoassays. all statistical analyses were analyzed using spss version 21 by the student t test and 1-way analysis of variance (anova). results: dicer inhibited the secretion of il-6 from hcc cells, as well as the growth of hcc related to proliferation, migration, and invasion. il-6 incubation with pcmv-nc cells increased proliferation (from 24 hours to 72 hours; p < 0.05), migration (p = 0.008), and invasion (p = 0.85). in addition, il-6 could reverse the inhibitory effect of dicer on hcc cells related to proliferation (p < 0.01) and migration (p = 0.006) when incubated with pcmv-dicer cells, whereas an il-6 blocker of tocilizumab could enhance the dicer-induced inhibition related to proliferation (p < 0.05), migration (p = 0.007), and invasion (p = 0.001) when incubated with pcmv-dicer cells. furthermore, dicer could increase the inhibition efficiency of apatinib on hcc treatment by their cooperation in il-6 downregulation. conclusions: dicer could inhibit hcc by the il-6 pathway, which would be a potential target for hcc treatment. the dicer inducer might be an enhancer of apatinib for hcc treatment.