Exosomal miR-155-5p promotes proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells by inhibiting TP53INP1 expression

Abstract

Exosomal microRNA (miRNA) secreted by tumor cells plays an important biological role in tumorigenesis and development. We aimed to explore the effects of exosomal miR-155-5p in gastric cancer (GC) and understand its mechanism of action in GC progression. We isolated exosomes from the human gastric mucosal epithelial cell line GES-1 and gastric cancer cell line AGS, and then identified them according to their surface markers by flow cytometry. Later, we detected the miR-155-5p expression levels in tissues and isolated exosomes using RT-qPCR. Bioinformatics analysis showed that miR-155-5p directly binds to the 3' untranslated region (3'-UTR) of tumor protein p53-induced nuclear protein 1 (TP53INP1) mRNA. We also investigated whether the miR-155-5p-rich exosomes caused changes in cell cycle, proliferation, and migration in AGS cells. In this study, we found that the levels of miR-155-5p were significantly increased in GC tissues and AGS cells, and that the TP53INP1 protein level was downregulated in GC tissues using IHC and IFC. TP53INP1 was found to be directly regulated by miR-155-5p following a dual luciferase-based reporter assay. After co-culturing with the isolated miR-155-5p-rich exosomes, the proliferation and migration capabilities of AGS cells were enhanced. Thus, our results reveal that exosomal miR-155-5p acts as an oncogene by targeting TP53INP1 mRNA in human gastric cancer.