MicroRNA 142-5p promotes tumor growth in oral squamous cell carcinoma via the PI3K/AKT pathway by regulating PTEN

Seiichiro Iizumi; Fumihiko Uchida; Hiroki Nagai; Shohei Takaoka; Satoshi Fukuzawa; Naomi Ishibashi Kanno; Kenji Yamagata; Katsuhiko Tabuchi; Toru Yanagawa; Hiroki Bukawa

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08086

MicroRNA 142-5p promotes tumor growth in oral squamous cell carcinoma via the PI3K/AKT pathway by regulating PTEN

Heliyon. 2021 Sep 30;7(10):e08086. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08086. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.
³ Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Institute of Medicine, Academic Assembly, Shinshu University, Nagano, 390-8621, Japan.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in carcinogenesis and cancer progression. The purpose of this study was to identify miRNAs associated with carcinoma function in OSCC and to investigate the potential role of the specific miRNAs. First, a comprehensive microarray analysis was performed, and miR-142-5p was identified as a candidate miRNA involved in OSCC. miR-142-5p has been reported to show high expression levels in cancer patients and to be involved in tumor growth and metastasis. However, the expression and function of miR-142-5p in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are not fully characterized. We evaluated miR-142-5p expression in both OSCC-derived cell lines and primary OSCC tissues and performed functional analysis of miR-142-5p in OSCC-derived cell lines using mimics and inhibitors. miR-142-5p expression was up-regulated in OSCC tissues and OSCC cell lines. Overexpression of miR-142-5p significantly promoted the proliferation and invasion of OSCC cells. Bioinformatics analysis was performed using TargetScan to predict potential target sites that match the seed region of miR-142-5p. Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromo-some 10 (PTEN) was identified as a potential target and selected for further analysis. PTEN expression levels were down-regulated and AKT expression levels were up-regulated in miR-142-5p-overexpressing cells. We have shown that miR-142-5p targets the PTEN gene and is involved in cancer progression. Our results suggest that miR-142-5p is involved in the progression of OSCC by controlling the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway by targeting the PTEN gene. Our findings suggest that miR-142-5p may be a new target for the treatment of OSCC.

Keywords: MicroRNA; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; PI3K/AKT pathway; PTEN; miR-142-5p.