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Research Paper

MiR-125b realizes anti-tumor action via PI3K/Akt/GSK3β pathway by targeting PIK3CD in hepatocellular carcinoma

Honglei Che1, Xiaodong Jia2, Lingzhan Meng3, Hu Li3, Xiaofeng Zhang3, Yunlong Zhuang3, Xiaofeng Niu3, Yu Zhang3, Yinjie Gao3, Zhenyu Zhu3
  • 1Department of Biochemistry, School of Basic Medicine, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang 712046, Shaanxi, China
  • 2Department of Comprehensive Liver Cancer, The Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
  • 3Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100039, China
* Co-first authors
Received: December 4, 2020Accepted: November 23, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.

Copyright: © 2021 Che et al.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the function and mechanisms of miR-125b in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expressions of miR-125b in HCC tissues and cells were detected using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Chi-square test was used to analyze the influences of miR-125b expression on clinical features of HCC patients. The effects of miR-125b expression on cell proliferation, migration and invasion were investigated using MTT and transwell assays, respectively. Protein analysis was performed by western blot. The potential target of miR-125b was identified via bioinformatic analysis and luciferase report assay. MiR-125b was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues and cells (P<0.01). Moreover, its down-regulation was negatively correlated with TNM stage (P=0.024) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.013). Enhanced expression of miR-125b could inhibit HCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. PIK3CD was confirmed as a target of miR-125b in HCC, and its expression was negatively regulated by miR-125b. Moreover, PIK3CD could reverse the function of miR-125b in HCC. Additionally, in vivo experiments proved that miR-125b could suppress HCC cell growth. MiR-125b may play anti-tumor action in HCC via suppressing PI3K/Akt/GSK3β signaling pathway by targeting PIK3CD.