Conclusion
MiR-34a inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in human NPC by targeting MCM3AP-AS1.
Methods
Paired NPC tissues and non-tumor tissues were collected from 55 NPC patients. Expression of MCM3AP-AS1 and miR-34a in paired tissues was analyzed by RT-qPCR. Interactions between MCM3AP-AS1 and miR-34a were analyzed by overexpression experiments. The roles of MCM3AP-AS1 and miR-34a in regulating NPC cell proliferation and apoptosis were explored by cell proliferation assay and cell apoptosis assay, respectively.
Results
Our bioinformatics analysis showed that MCM3AP-AS1 may be targeted by miR-34a, which is a well-studied tumor suppressor miRNA. In this study, we showed that miR-34a was downregulated and MCM3AP-AS1 was upregulated in NPC. An inverse correlation between the expression of MCM3AP-AS1 and miR-34a was found across NPC tissue samples. High expression level of MCM3AP-AS1 and low levels of miR-34a in NPC tissues predicted the poor survival. In NPC cells, overexpression of MCM3AP-AS1 did not affect the expression of miR34a, while overexpression of miR-34a led to downregulated MCM3AP-AS1. Cell proliferation and apoptosis assay showed that overexpression of miR-34a reduced the enhancing effects of overexpressing MCM3AP-AS1 on cell proliferation and the inhibitory effects on cell apoptosis.