Abstract
MicroRNAs (MiRs) are thought to display regulator action in tumor suppression and oncogenesis. miR-144 plays an important role in the development of various cancers, such as colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer, by targetting different molecules potentially involved in many signaling pathways. SMAD4 is a common signaling during tumor progression, and it can inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell motility in most epithelial cells. The present study focused on the effect of miR-144 and SMAD4 on colon cancer in order to find the novel gene therapy target for the treatment of colon cancer. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to assess the expression level of miR-144 in colon cancer tissues and SW620 cells. MTT assay, scratch test, and transwell assay were used to evaluate cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, respectively. Moreover, luciferase assays were utilized to identify the predictive effect of miR-144 on SMAD4. Western blotting was performed to determine the relative expression of protein related to SMAD4. We found miR-144 level was significantly lower in colon cancer tissues and SW620 cells. Moreover, SMAD4 level, both in mRNA and protein, was obviously elevated in colon cancer tissues. Further, miR-144 mimics treatment inhibited cells proliferation, invasion, and migration. Fluorescence intensity of miR-144 mimics group in wild type cells was decreased. MiR-144 mimics repressed the SMAD4 expression both in mRNA and protein. These findings about miR-144/SMAD4 pair provide a novel therapeutic method for colon cancer patients.
Highlights
Colon cancer is known to be the third most common type of cancer in the world and the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality [1,2]
The results showed that miR-144 levels were significantly lower in colon tissues than in noncancerous colon tissues (Figure 1A)
We found that miR-144 mimics repressed SW620 cells proliferation since 48 h after transfection (P
Summary
Colon cancer is known to be the third most common type of cancer in the world and the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality [1,2]. MiRs are closely related to various biological processes, such as cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, motility, and tumorigenesis by directly mediating the expression level of its target gene [6]. Due to their control of key oncogenes and tumor suppressor gene expression [7], miRNA has been shown to play a key role in cancers. MiR binds to several proteins in the RNA silencing complex, causing mRNA degradation or translation inhibition, or both processes [8]. MiRs are proposed to show tumor suppressor and oncogene regulator, and develop complex patterns of tissue-specific expression that can affect cancer cell proliferation [9] and metastasis [10], and may define the cancer stem cell phenotype. MiR-144 was considered to be License 4.0 (CC BY)
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