miR-219a-5p inhibits breast cancer cell migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by targeting myocardin-related transcription factor A

• Published in: Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica Vol. 49; no. 12; pp. 1112 - 1121
• Main Authors: Zhuang, Chunyu, Yuan, Ying, Song, Tiefeng, Wang, Huiqin, Huang, Liwen, Luo, Xuegang, He, Hongpeng, Huo, Lihong, Zhou, Hao, Wang, Nan, Zhang, Tongcun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China 01.12.2017
• Subjects: Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cell Movement; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; Female; Genes, Tumor Suppressor - physiology; Hep G2 Cells; Humans; MCF-7 Cells; MicroRNAs - physiology; Neoplasm Metastasis; Trans-Activators - genetics; cell migration; myocardin-related transcription factor A; breast cancer; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; miR-219a-5p
• ISSN: 1672-9145; 1745-7270
• DOI: 10.1093/abbs/gmx114

Although many miRNAs are reported to be involved in tumor formation and progression, the effect of miR-219a-5p on breast cancer metastasis is not well-known. The aim of this study is to investi- gate the effect of miR-219a-5p on the migratory ability and epithelial-mesenchymal transition （EMT） of breast cancer cells. First, miR-219a-5p was found to be highly expressed in Iow-invasive breast cancer MCF-7 cells, but lowly expressed in high-invasive breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Wound scratch assay and transwell assay showed that miR-219a-Sp inhibited the migratory ability of MDA-MB-231 cells, miR-219a-5p also suppressed the cellular EMT, confirmed by suppressing the expression of mesenchymal markers vimentin and N-cadherin and increasing the expression of epithelial marker E-cadherin. Using the epithelial-mesenchymal-epithelial model in MCF-7 cells, we confirmed that the level of miR-219a-5p was highly expressed in epithelial-type cells and lowly expressed in mesenchymal-type cells. Importantly, we identified myocardin-related transcription factor A （MRTF-A） as a novel potential target gene of miR-219a-5p. Overexpression of miR-219a-5p in MDA-MB-231 cells could inhibit the expression of MRTF-A as revealed by real-time PCR and western blot analysis, miR-219a-5p inhibited the transcription of MRTF-A by targeting the 3＇UTR of MRTF-A, which was confirmed by wild-type or mutant MRTF-A 3＇UTR luciferase reporter system. Furthermore, knockdown of MRTF-A using siRNA for MRTF-A could depress breast cell migration. In conclusion, our present study revealed the tumor suppressive role of miR-219a-5p in regulating breast cancer migration by targeting MRTF-A, suggesting that miR-219a-5p might be a therapeutic target in breast cancer through regulating EMT.