MicroRNA-621 inhibits the growth of gastric cancer cells by targeting SYF2

Abstract

Increasing evidence indicates that aberrantly expressed microRNAs play a role in tumorigenesis and progression of gastric cancer. Recently, a novel cancer-related microRNA, miR-621, was found to be involved in cancer pathogenesis. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying the oncogenic activity of miR-621 remain unclear and require further investigation. In the current study, we demonstrate that miR-621 expression is downregulated in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines, and its reduction is associated with malignant clinical features including tumor size, lymph node metastasis, tumor–node–metastasis stage and poor prognosis. Functional studies involving gain- and loss-of-function experiments revealed that miR-621 represses cell viability, colony formation, cell cycle progression and proliferation in vitro, and miR-621 overexpression inhibited tumor growth in a gastric cancer xenograft model. SYF2 was identified as a direct target gene of miR-621 in gastric cancer. MiR-621 directly interacts with the SYF2 3′-UTR and post-transcriptionally repressed SYF2 expression in gastric cancer cells. SYF2 was significantly overexpressed in gastric cancer tissues and negatively correlated with miR-621 expression. Moreover, inhibition of SYF2 expression reversed the effects of miR-621 loss in gastric cancer cells. SYF2 overexpression was similar to that induced by miR-621 loss in gastric cancer. Taken together, these studies suggest that miR-621 may be a viable therapeutic target in gastric cancer.