Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

MiR-663, a microRNA targeting p21WAF1/CIP1, promotes the proliferation and tumorigenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

2012; Springer Nature; Volume: 31; Issue: 41 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/onc.2011.629

ISSN

1476-5594

Autores

Chun Yi, Q Wang, Linli Wang, Yanbin Huang, L Li, Lingtao Liu, Xin‐Xi Zhou, Guiqin Xie, Tiebang Kang, Hanyu Wang, Mu‐Sheng Zeng, Jun Ma, Yi Zeng, J-P Yun,

Tópico(s)

RNA modifications and cancer

Resumo

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) may function as either oncogenes or tumor suppressors in the malignant progression of different tumor types. MiR-663 was recently reported to be decreased and identified as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer. We also verified its role in repressing cell proliferation of a gastric cancer cell line. In this study, however, miR-663 was found to be upregulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cells compared with human immortalized nasopharyngeal epithelium cells, using a miRNA microarray, and this higher expression was confirmed in NPC tissue samples. Indeed, inhibition of miR-663 impaired the proliferation of NPC cells in vitro and the NPC tumor growth of xenografts in nude mice. Mechanistically, miR-663 directly targeted p21WAF1/CIP1 to promote the cellular G1/S transition, as the inhibitory effects of miR-663 on the G1/S transition could be rescued by p21WAF1/CIP1 silencing. Our results imply that miR-663 may act as an oncogene in NPC. The newly identified miR-663/p21WAF1/CIP1 axis clarifies the molecular mechanism of NPC cell proliferation and represents a novel strategy for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with NPC.

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