miR-126 inhibits non-small cell lung cancer cells proliferation by targeting EGFL7

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent an abundant group of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression, and have been demonstrated to play roles as tumor suppressor genes (oncogenes), and affect homeostatic processes such as development, cell proliferation, and cell death. Subsequently, epidermal growth factor-like domain 7 (EGFL7), which is confirmed to be involved in cellular responses such as cell migration and blood vessel formation, is identified as a potential miR-126 target by bioinformatics. However, there is still no evidence showing EGFL7's relationship with miR-126 and the proliferation of lung cancer cells. The aim of this work is to investigate whether miR-126, together with EGFL7, have an effect on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells' proliferation. Therefore, we constructed overexpressed miR-126 plasmid to target EGFL7 and transfected them into NSCLC cell line A549 cells. Then, we used methods like quantitative RT-PCR, Western blot, flow cytometry assay, and immunohistochemistry staining to confirm our findings. The result was that overexpression of miR-126 in A549 cells could increase EGFL7 expression. Furthermore, the most notable finding by cell proliferation related assays is that miR-126 can inhibit A549 cells proliferation in vitro and inhibit tumor growth in vivo by targeting EGFL7. As a result, our study demonstrates that miR-126 can inhibit proliferation of non-small cell lung cancer cells through one of its targets, EGFL7.