Citation

  • Authors: Enkhnaran B. et al.
  • Year: 2022
  • Journal: J Oncol 2022 1971559
  • Applications: in vitro / DNA, mimic miRNA, miRNA, siRNA / INTERFERin, jetPRIME
  • Cell types:
    1. Name: HCC-LM3
    2. Name: MHCC97H
    3. Name: MHCC97L
    4. Name: PLC/PRF/5
      Description: Human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line.
      Known as: 
      PLC-PRF-5; PLC PRF 5; PLC/PRF5; PLCPRF5; PLC-8024; PLC8024; PLC; Alexander cells; Alexander; Primary Liver Carcinoma/Poliomyelitis Research Foundation/5.

Method

The hsa-miR-106b-5p mimics, hsa-miR-106b-5p inhibitor, and negative controls were attained from RiboBio (Guangzhou, Guangdong, China). The overall sequence of BTG3 was inserted into the pEX-3 vector (GenePharma, Shanghai, China) to construct the BTG3 expression vector. Specific small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) for BTG3 were designed by GenePharma (Shanghai, China). Transfection was performed using INTERFERin (Polyplus, NY, USA). In contrast, transfection of plasmid was performed using a jetPrime reagent (Polyplus, NY, USA) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The miR-106b-5p expression was enhanced by transfection of miR-106b-5p mimics into PLC/PRF/5 and MHCC-97L cells and blocked by transfection of miR-106b-5p inhibitor into MHCC-97H, HCC-LM3 cells. The transfection efficiency was evaluated by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR).

Abstract

microRNAs (miRNAs) and miRNA-mediated regulatory networks are promising candidates in the prevention and treatment of cancer, but the role of specific miRNAs involved in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be elusive. Herein, we found that miR-106b-5p is upregulated in both HCC patients' tumor tissues and HCC cell lines. The miR-106b-5p expression level was positively correlated with α-fetoprotein (AFP), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), and tumor size. Overexpression of miR-106b-5p promoted cell proliferation, migration, cell cycle G1/S transition, and tumor growth, while decreased miR-106b-5p expression had opposite effects. Mechanistic studies showed that B-cell translocation gene 3 (BTG3), a known antiproliferative protein, was a direct target of miR-106b-5p, whose expression level is inversely correlated with miR-106b-5p expression. Moreover, miR-106b-5p positively regulates cell proliferation in a BTG3-dependent manner, resulting in upregulation of Bcl-xL, cyclin E1, and CDK2, as well as downregulation of p27. More importantly, we also demonstrated that miR-106b-5p enhances the resistance to sorafenib treatment in a BTG3-dependent manner. The in vivo findings showed that mice treated with a miR-106b-5p sponge presented a smaller tumor burden than controls, while the mice injected cells treated with miR-106b-5p had more considerable tumor burden than controls. Altogether, these data suggest that miR-106b-5p promotes cell proliferation and cell cycle and increases HCC cells' resistance to sorafenib through the BTG3/Bcl-xL/p27 signaling pathway.

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