miR-124 inhibits progression of hepatocarcinoma by targeting KLF4 and promises a novel diagnostic marker

Abstract

Hepatocarcinoma is one of the most lethal malignancy haunting the Chinese population, which is partially due to the difficulties in diagnosis at an early stage. The search for a biomarker that could signify the presence and progress of hepatocarcinoma is never ended. MicroRNAs are 22-nt RNAs that could bind to 3' UTR of target mRNAs, mediating degradation of mRNAs or inhibiting the translation. Although much has been investigated, the role of miR-124 in hepatocarcinoma remained elusive. We first detected aberrant expression level of miR-124 in HCC tissues of 112 patients. By exploring the clinical parameters, we found a significantly inverse correlation between miR-124 level and TNM stages. Consistent with this, the survival analysis indicated the association of low miR-124 with longer survival time. Subsequent forced expression miR-124 resulted in reduced cell viability of Hep3B and SMMC-7221, which cell lines have high and low background expression of miR-124, respectively. TargetScan prediction rendered a subset of target candidates, which were selected for experimental validation, KLF4 was subject to luciferase assay. Ectopic expression of KLF4 increased the sphere formation ability and CD44/133-positive cell numbers, which can be reversed by abundant expression of miR-124, suggesting that KLF4 is a functional target of miR-124 in tumourigenesis and cancer progression of HCC.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: ZKSCAN3 drives tumor metastasis via integrin β4/FAK/AKT mediated epithelial–mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma

“…*P < 0.05 integrin αV expression [31]. MiR-124 inhibited progression of HCC by targeting KLF4 and promises a novel diagnostic marker [32]. These data further confirm that miR-124 exerts a tumor suppressor in HCC [33].…”

MicroRNA-1297 contributes to the progression of human cervical carcinoma through PTEN

“…HeLa cells were seeded in a 96-well plate (2 Â 10 4 cells per well). The cells were cotransfected with 0.3 lg firefly luciferase reporter plasmid, 0.15 lg b-galactosidase expression vector (VC) (Ambion, Austin, TX) and same amounts of miRNA vector control (miR-Ctrl) or miR-1297 mimic by lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's instructions [10]. The cells were analysed with luciferase assay kit (Promega) after 48h.…”

miR-219a-5p represses migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells via targeting EYA2

“…MiRNA (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs with $22 nucleotides in length, post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression by binding to the 3 0 UTR of the mRNA of their target gene [14,15]. Increasing evidence showed that miRNA, function as tumour suppressor genes or oncogenes, participates in the progression of various tumours including OS [16][17][18][19].…”