Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in women and the globally leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Bioinformatics and experimental analyses found that miR-937-5p may play a proto-oncogenic role in breast cancer; however, the specific effects and the molecular mechanism need further investigation. GSEA-KEGG and GSEA-GO suggested that miR-937-5p might be related to cell cycle and DNA replication. The experimental data indicated that miR-937-5p inhibition significantly repressed the proliferation of breast carcinoma cells and elicited S-phase cell cycle arrest. Meanwhile, the protein levels of proliferating marker ki-67 and cell cycle regulators Cyclin A2, Cyclin B1, CDK1, and Cyclin D1 were also decreased by miR-937-5p inhibition. miR-937-5p could directly bind to and negatively regulate SOX17. SOX17 overexpression also significantly repressed the proliferation of breast carcinoma cells and elicited S-phase cell cycle arrest and decreased ki-67, β-catenin, c-Myc, Cyclin A2, Cyclin B1, Cyclin D1, and CDK1 protein contents. More importantly, the effects of miR-937-5p were reversed by SOX17.