MicroRNA-873 Promotes Cell Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion by Directly Targeting TSLC1 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Background/Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer and has the third highest mortality rate among all cancers. MicroRNAs are a class of endogenous, single-stranded short noncoding RNAs. The purpose of this study was to study the role of microRNA-873 in HCC. Methods: The expression of miRNA-873 and tumor suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1) in HCC tissues and cell lines was detected by real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) or western blot. A CCK-8 assay was used to examine cell proliferation; flow cytometry was used to assess the cell cycle; the Transwell migration assay was used to test for metastasis. Luciferase assays were performed to assess whether TSLC1 was a novel target of miRNA-873. Results: We showed that miRNA-873 was upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines compared with the normal control. Knockdown of miRNA-873 inhibited the growth and metastasis of HepG2 and accelerated G1 phase arrest, while overexpression of miRNA-873 had the opposite effect. The dual-luciferase reporter assays revealed that TSLC1 was a novel target of miRNA-873. Further study showed that TSLC1 was decreased in HCC tissues and cell lines. There was a negative correlation between the expression levels of TSLC1 and miRNA-873. The effect of miRNA-873 overexpression was neutralized by TSLC1. We also found that miRNA-873 activated the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway and promoted HCC. Conclusions: Our data demonstrated that miRNA-873 promoted HCC progression by targeting TSLC1 and provided a new target for the therapy of HCC.