Clinicopathological role of miR-30a-5p in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and prediction of its function with bioinformatics analysis

• Published in: OncoTargets and therapy Vol. 9; pp. 5061 - 5071
• Main Authors: Chen, Gang, Huang, Wenting, Chen, Zu-xuan, He, Rongquan, Wu, Yuzhuang, Yin, Shuya, Liang, Xiao-na, Yang, Hong, Peng, Zhi-gang, Yang, Lihua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Zealand Dove Medical Press Limited 01.01.2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Dove Medical Press
• Subjects: Apoptosis; Autophagy; Bioinformatics; Biomarkers; Care and treatment; Cell growth; Computational biology; Development and progression; Gastroenterology; Gene expression; Genes; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Hepatitis; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Hepatoma; Hospitals; Innovations; Kinases; Liver cancer; Metastasis; MicroRNA; MicroRNAs; Original Research; Variance analysis; United States > US; China; progression; gene ontology analysis; miR-30a-5p; pathway analysis; target genes; hepatocellular carcinoma
• ISSN: 1178-6930; 1178-6930
• DOI: 10.2147/OTT.S111431

It has been reported that deregulation or dysfunction of microRNAs (miRNAs) plays an essential part in the hepatocarcinogenesis. However, the contribution and mechanism of microRNA-30a-5p (miR-30a-5p) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains largely unknown. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the clinicopathological role of miR-30a-5p in HCC tissues and explore its potential pathways in this study. The expression of miR-30a-5p was measured in 95 HCC and adjacent noncancer tissues by real-time reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The relationship between miR-30a-5p expression levels and clinicopathological parameters was also analyzed. Furthermore, the potential target genes of miR-30a-5p were collected via online prediction and literature searching. Gene ontology and pathway enrichment analyses were used to identify the possible function of miR-30a-5p in HCC. Compared with adjacent noncancer tissues (2.23±0.77), expression level of miR-30a-5p was significantly lower in HCC tissues (1.26±0.66, P<0.001). MiR-30a-5p expression was evidently correlated with tumor nodes, metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis stage, portal vein tumor embolus, vascular invasion, and status of tumor capsule (all P<0.05). A total of 878 genes were finally used for the biological informatics analyses. These prospective target genes were highly enriched in various key pathways, for instance, Ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, Axon guidance, Neurotrophin signaling pathway, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and ErbB signaling pathway. In conclusion, this study clarifies that the downregulation of miRNA-30a-5p might play a vital part in the incidence and progression of HCC via targeting various prospective genes and pathways. Future validation is required to further explore the prospective molecular mechanism of miR-30a-5p in HCC.