Abstract
Background Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease; its lethality is related to rapid growth and tendency to invade adjacent organs and metastasize at an early stage. Objective The aim of this study was to identify miRNAs and their gene targets involved in the invasive phenotype in pancreatic cancer to better understand the biological behaviour and the rapid progression of this disease. Methods miRNA profiling was performed in isogenic matched high invasive and low-invasive subclones derived from the MiaPaCa-2 cell line and validated in a panel of pancreatic cancer cell lines, tumour, and normal pancreas. Online miRNA target prediction algorithms and gene expression arrays were used to predict the target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs. miRNAs and potential target genes were subjected to overexpression and knockdown approaches and downstream functional assays to determine their pathological role in pancreatic cancer. Results Differential expression analysis revealed 10 significantly dysregulated miRNAs associated with invasive capacity (Student's t-tests; P value <0.05; fold change = ±2). The expression of top upregulated miR-135b and downregulated let-7c miRNAs correlated with the invasive abilities of eight pancreatic cancer cell lines and displayed differential expression in pancreatic cancer and adjacent normal tissue specimens. Ectopic overexpression of let-7c decreased proliferation, invasion, and colony formation. Integrated analysis of miRNA-mRNA using in silico algorithms and experimental validation databases identified four putative gene targets of let-7c. One of these targets, SOX13, was found to be upregulated in PDAC tumour compared with normal tissue in TCGA and an independent data set by qPCR and immunohistochemistry. RNAi knockdown of SOX13 reduced the invasion and colony formation ability of pancreatic cancer cells. Conclusion The identification of key miRNA-mRNA gene interactions and networks provide potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for better treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients.
Highlights
Pancreatic cancer is fast becoming the major cause of cancerrelated mortality worldwide [1, 2]
A single miRNA can interact with multiple target genes exerting oncogenic or tumour suppressive functions and can potentially regulate multiple cellular pathways. miRNA regulation of gene expression has been reported to be involved in many tumorigenic processes, including cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and metastasis [6]
After filtering for low-abundant miRNAs (Ct value > 37 and nondetectable), a set of 240 miRNAs remained for further analysis. e TaqMan Low-Density miRNA Arrays (TLDA) data were analyzed using the geometrical mean of endogenous controls RNU48 and RNU44 as reference genes to normalize qRT-PCR data
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is fast becoming the major cause of cancerrelated mortality worldwide [1, 2]. E aim of this study was to identify miRNAs and their gene targets involved in the invasive phenotype in pancreatic cancer to better understand the biological behaviour and the rapid progression of this disease. Integrated analysis of miRNA-mRNA using in silico algorithms and experimental validation databases identified four putative gene targets of let-7c. One of these targets, SOX13, was found to be upregulated in PDAC tumour compared with normal tissue in TCGA and an independent data set by qPCR and immunohistochemistry. E identification of key miRNA-mRNA gene interactions and networks provide potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for better treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients Conclusion. e identification of key miRNA-mRNA gene interactions and networks provide potential diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for better treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients
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