Abstract
Gastric cancer is one of the top three leading causes of cancer-related death in the world. Evidence indicated that miR-4677-3p was dysregulated and involved in modulating invasion and migration in multiple types of cancer cells. The aim of this research is to explore the function and mechanism of miR-4677-3p in the development of gastric cancer. In this study, we discovered that miR-4677-3p was down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues and cells. Over-expression of miR-4677-3p suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, miR-4677-3p directly bond to CEMIP 3'UTR region and inhibited CEMIP expression. CEMIP promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells via accelerating PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. siCEMIP or PI3K/AKT signaling inhibitor (Akti-1/2 and LY294002) partly reversed the effects of miR-4677-3p on the cellular growth and metastasis of gastric cancer. In general, miR-4677-3p regulated the development of gastric cancer through CEMIP-PI3K/AKT signaling pathway axis. This study verified the function and molecular mechanism of miR-4677-3p in gastric cancer cells, and may provide a potential diagnosis/prognosis target for patients with gastric cancer.