Abstract
Pancreatic cancer, one of the most common cancers globally, is the fourth most common cause of cancer-associated mortality in the USA. The 5-year relative survival rate for patients with pancreatic cancer is ~5% and the median survival time is only 6 months. The poor prognosis is mainly due to early and aggressive local invasion and metastasis, as well as dissemination of the pancreatic cancer cells. The present study demonstrated that microRNA-452 (miR-452) was markedly downregulated in pancreatic cancer tissues, particularly in metastatic tumors and pancreatic cancer cell lines. Overexpression of miR-452 significantly inhibited migration and invasion in pancreatic cancer cells. In addition, the molecular mechanism underlying the inhibitory functions of miR-452 in pancreatic cancer was also investigated. The results indicated that B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 (BMI1) was a direct target gene of miR-452 in pancreatic cancer. Overexpression of miR-452 inhibited the migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer, at least partially by knockdown of BMI1 expression. The results provided novel insight with potential therapeutic applications for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer.