MiR-29a-3p inhibits endometrial cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion by targeting VEGFA/CD C42/PAK1

Aizhi Geng,Lin Luo,Fengyun Ren,Ling Zhang,Haiying Zhou,Xue Gao

doi:10.1186/s12885-021-08506-z

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the mechanism of miR-29a-3p in regulating endometrial cancer (EC) progression.MethodsA total of 72 EC patients were enrolled. EC cells were transfected. Cells proliferation, cloning ability, migration and invasion were researched by MTT assay, colony formation experiment, cell scratch test and Transwell experiment respectively. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed. Xenograft experiment was conducted using nude mice. miR-29a-3p, VEGFA, CDC42, PAK1 and p-PAK1 expression in cells/tissues was investigated by qRT-PCR and Western blot.ResultsmiR-29a-3p expression was aberrantly reduced in EC patients, which was associated with poor outcome. miR-29a-3p inhibited EC cells proliferation, cloning formation, migration and invasion (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01 or P < 0.001). miR-29a-3p inhibited CDC42/PAK1 signaling pathway activity in EC cells (P < 0.01). VEGFA expression was directly inhibited by miR-29a-3p. miR-29a-3p suppressed EC cells malignant phenotype in vitro and growth in vivo by targeting VEGFA/CDC42/PAK1 signaling pathway (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01).ConclusionmiR-29a-3p inhibits EC cells proliferation, migration and invasion by targeting VEGFA/CDC42/PAK1 signaling pathway.

Highlights

This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of miR-29a-3p in regulating endometrial cancer (EC) progression
HEC-1A and Ishikawa cells were transfected by miR-29a-3p mimic and negative control. qRT-PCR showed that HEC-1A and Ishikawa cells of miR-29a-3p mimic group exhibited dramatically higher miR-29a-3p expression than that of BLANK group and miR-NC group (P < 0.001) (Fig. 2B)
This revealed that the expression of miR-29a-3p in HEC-1A and Ishikawa cells was successfully upregulated by transfection

Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of miR-29a-3p in regulating endometrial cancer (EC) progression. Endometrial cancer (EC) is a common gynecological malignancy which accounts for about 4.8% of cancers in women [1]. Invasion or metastasis is one of the main causes of malignant development of EC. EC patients diagnosed at early stage have a 5-year survival rate of approximately 82% [2]. For EC patients diagnosed at advanced stage, the 5-year survival rate is less than 30% [3]. EC patients with advanced stage often have worse response to the traditional treatment strategies, such as surgical. With the development of molecular biology, biomedical informatics and novel diagnostic technologies have become an essential component in medical research [6, 7]. One of the hot spots in the field of genetics was to explore microRNAs (miRNAs) as potential biomarkers and target for diseases diagnosis and treatment [8, 9]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion