Abstract
Gliomas are the most common primary brain tumors in adults and are associated with high mortality rates. In the present study, the aim was to evaluate the role of miR-454-3p in the pathogenesis of human glioma and to explore the underlying mechanism. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was performed to compare the expression levels of miR-454-3p in glioma and adjacent normal tissue. The effects of miR-454-3p on cell proliferation was tested by combining MTT and colony formation assays. Dual-luciferase assay was used to identify the target gene of miR-454-3p. The results showed that miR-454-3p was upregulated in glioma tissues where it exerts a positively regulatory role on cell growth. Dual-luciferase assay confirmed Early Growth Response 3 (EGR3) to be a target for miR-454-3p. Overexpression of EGR3 in glioma cells was found to impair miR-454-3p mimic-induced cell proliferation. These results suggested that upregulated miR-454-3p served an important role in glioma tumorigenesis by targeting EGR3, which provided valuable insights into the underlying mechanism of the disease that may lead to possible novel therapeutic strategies.