SCIENCE@home

MicroRNA-663b promotes cell proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition by directly targeting SMAD7 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Meirong Wang,M. Jia,K. Yuan

Published 2018 in Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

ABSTRACT

MicroRNAs (miRs) serve important roles in the development of various types of human cancer, including nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In the present study, the expression levels of miR-663b in NPC were investigated and its role and underlying mechanisms were examined. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to assess miR-663b expression levels in NPC tissues and C666-1 cells. TargetScan was applied to predict the putative targets of miR-663b and the dual luciferase reporter assay was used to confirm the predictions. To investigate the role of miR-663b in NPC, the NPC C666-1 cell line was transfected with miR-663b mimics, miR-663b inhibitors or negative control. The Cell Counting kit-8 assay was performed for cell proliferation detection and western blot analysis was applied to determine the expression levels of epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated proteins. Results indicated that when compared with the adjacent normal tissues and the normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cells, miR-663b expression levels were significantly upregulated in the NPC tissues and the NPC cells (P<0.01). Notably, SMAD7 is a target gene of miR-663b and may be inhibited by miR-663b. Results indicated that NPC cell proliferation was significantly promoted by miR-663b mimics and significantly inhibited by miR-663b inhibitors (P<0.05 and P<0.01). In addition, the results indicated that, when compared with the negative control group the expression levels of E-cadherin were significantly decreased, whereas the expression levels of N-cadherin, Vimentin and matrix metalloproteinase-9 were significantly increased in the cells of the miR-663b mimics group (P<0.05 and P<0.01). However, cells in the miR-663b inhibitors group exhibited the opposite effects. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicated that miR-663b functions as a tumor promoter in NPC via promoting NPC cell proliferation and EMT by directly targeting SMAD7.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-31 of 31 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-26 of 26 citing papers · Page 1 of 1