MicroRNA-874 inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in human breast cancer by targeting CDK9

• Published in: FEBS letters 2014-12, Vol.588 (24), p.4527-4535
• Main Authors: Wang, Ling, Gao, Wen, Hu, Fan, Xu, Zhiyang, Wang, Fuqiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - genetics; Base Sequence; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; CDK9; Cell cycle; Cell Cycle - genetics; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell proliferation; Cell Proliferation - genetics; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 9 - deficiency; Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 9 - genetics; Down-Regulation - genetics; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Humans; MicroRNAs - genetics; Middle Aged; miR-874
• ISSN: 0014-5793; 1873-3468
• DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2014.09.035

•miR-874 is significantly down-regulated in breast cancer tissues.•miR-874 inhibits CDK9 expression in breast cancer cells.•We propose a role for the miR-874/CDK9 axis in breast cancer tumorigenesis. It has been demonstrated that miR-874 plays important roles in many types of cancers. Nevertheless, its biological function in breast cancer remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that the expression level of miR-874 is down-regulated in breast cancer in comparison with the adjacent normal tissues. The overexpression of miR-874 is able to inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells. Using a bioinformatics method, we further show that CDK9 is a direct target of miR-874 and that its protein level is negatively regulated by miR-874. Therefore, the data reported in this manuscript demonstrate that miR-874 is an important regulator in breast cancer and imply that the miR-874/CDK9 axis has potential as a therapeutic target for breast cancer.