MicroRNA-378-3p/5p suppresses migration and invasion of oral squamous carcinoma cells by inhibiting KLK4 expression.

This study aimed to evaluate the role of miR-378 in the migration and invasion of OSCC in vitro and in vivo. According to our results, the migration and invasion abilities were increased in miR-378-overexpressing cells, while decreased in miR-378-3p/5p-silencing cells. In addition, overexpression of miR-378 suppressed the expressions and activities of MMP-9 and MMP-2. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was restrained by overexpression of miR-378 as evidenced by increase in E-cadherin expression and decrease in N-cadherin and uPA expression. However, the miR-378-3p/5p knockdown groups had the opposite results. Moreover, kallikrein-related peptidase 4 (KLK4) was confirmed to be a target gene of miR-378. Overexpression of KLK4 reversed miR-378 overexpression-induced decrease in migration and invasion via upregulating MMP-9, MMP-2, and N-cadherin levels, while downregulating E-cadhrin level. Finally, the number of metastasis nodules in the lung tissues of nude mice was reduced by overexpression of miR-378, whereas the metastasis nodule number was raised by miR-378 knockdown. Taken together, our study suggests that miR-378/KLK4 axis is involved in the mechanisms of the migration and invasion of OSCC cells. Targeting miR-378/KLK4 axis may be an effective measure for treating OSCC. PMID: 31265790 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Biochemistry and Cell Biology - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Biochem Cell Biol Source Type: research