MicroRNA-138 Inhibits Cell Growth, Invasion, and EMT of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Via SOX4/p53 Feedback Loop.

In this study, we investigated the biological functions and molecular mechanisms of miR-138 in NSCLC cell lines, discussing whether it could be a therapeutic biomarker of NSCLC in the future. In our study, we found that miR-138 is down-regulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, the low level of miR-138 was associated with increased expression of SOX4 in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Up-regulation of miR-138 significantly inhibited proliferation of NSCLC cells. In addition, invasion and EMT of NSCLC cells was suppressed by overexpression of miR-138. However, down-regulation of miR-138 promoted cell growth and metastasis of NSCLC cells. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that the SOX4 was a potential target gene of miR-138. Next, luciferase reporter assay confirmed that miR-138 could directly target SOX4. Consistent with the effect of miR-138, down-regulation of SOX4 by siRNA inhibited proliferation, invasion and EMT of NSCLC cells. Overexpression of SOX4 in NSCLC cells partially reversed the effect of miR-138 mimic. In addition, decreased SOX4 expression could increase the level of miR-138 via up-regulation of p53. Introduction of miR-138 dramatically inhibited growth, invasion and EMT of NSCLC cells through SOX4/p53 feedback loop. PMID: 28653608 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Oncology Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncol Res Source Type: research