EZH2 promotes angiogenesis through inhibition of miR-1/Endothelin-1 axis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Emerging evidence clearly indicates that EZH2 plays a crucial role in tumor angiogenesis. However, the role of EZH2 in angiogenesis is still unknown in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We here showed that the elevated EZH2 level was closely associated with an aggressive and poor prognostic phenotype, and was positively correlated with microvessel density (MVD) in NPC tissues. Functional studies showed that EZH2 upregulation promoted cell proliferation, migration and tubule formation of endothelial cells, and knockdown of EZH2 suppressed tumor growth, metastasis and angiogenesis in vivo. Mechanistic investigations revealed that EZH2 inhibited miR-1 transcription via promoter binding activity, leading to enhanced expression of Endothelin-1 (ET-1) which is suppressed by miR-1 targeting of ET-1 3'UTR. Furthermore, knockdown of EZH2 or overexpression of miR-1 exerted anti-angiogenic effect on NPC cells. More importantly, the neutralizing antibody against ET-1 significantly abrogated the pro-angiogenic effect of EZH2, and forced expression of ET-1 rescued the anti-angiogenic effect induced by EZH2 knockdown. In clinical specimens, ET-1 was widely overexpressed and associated with clinical stage and MVD. Taken together, our results identify a novel signaling pathway involved in NPC angiogenesis, and also suggest that EZH2-miR-1-ET-1 axis represents multiple potential therapeutic targets for NPC.