The full scale of human miRNome in specific cell or tissue, especially in cancers, remains to be determined. An in-depth analysis of miRNomes in human normal liver, hepatitis liver, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was carried out in this study. We found nine miRNAs accounted for 88.2% of the miRNome in human liver. The third most highly expressed miR-199a/b-3p is consistently decreased in HCC, and its decrement significantly correlates with poor survival of HCC patients. Moreover, miR-199a/b-3p can target tumorpromoting PAK4 to suppress HCC growth through inhibiting PAK4/Raf/ MEK/ERK pathway both in vitro and in vivo. Our study provides miRNomes of human liver and HCC and contributes to better understanding of the important deregulated miRNAs in HCC and liver diseases.
CommentMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs of 22 nucleotides length that do not hold the sequential information to transcribe proteins, but function as critical regulators of gene expression in multicellular and some unicellular eukaryotes.1 Pre-miRNAs undergo sequential processing by the ribonuclease III endonucleases Drosha and Dicer, leading to the mature 20-to 23-nucleotide species.2 These in turn are integrated into the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) and recognize their target genes by interacting with complementary sequences in the 3 0 untranslated region of their messenger RNAs (mRNAs). In the case of perfect or nearly perfect pairing, the target mRNA becomes degraded, whereas imperfect pairing leads to translational repression of the latter.3 Importantly, an individual miRNA can regulate hundreds of transcripts and thus can coordinate complex networks of gene expression and subsequently induce global changes in cellular physiology and pathophysiology. Indeed, in addition to genetic and epigenetic abnormalities modifying oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, deregulation of miRNAs has been shown to contribute to carcinogenesis of both solid and hematological malignancy. 4,5 In recent years, significant efforts were taken to identify miRNAs that regulate hepatocarcinogenesis. Altered expression patterns of miRNAs have been described in both rodent and human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in studies using microarray technology or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). In 2006, Murakami et al. reported on a panel of eight miRNAs that were significantly altered in HCC, comprising the miR-199 family, which was also down-regulated in their collective. 6 In the following years, a whole kaleidoscope of other deregulated miRNAs were reported by different groups in the context of HCC.7 Furthermore, specific targets were linked to miRNAs deregulated in HCC, including genes involved in tumor metastasis such as focal adhesion kinase (targeted by miR-151), 8,9 cellcycle-modulating proteins such as cyclin G1 (targeted by miR-122), 10 or the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors CDKN1B/p27 and CDKN1C/p57 (targeted by miR-221).11 However, as the authors of the present article point out, the results obtained from these previous microar...