Published online May 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i19.5867
Peer-review started: December 16, 2014
First decision: January 8, 2015
Revised: January 15, 2015
Accepted: February 13, 2015
Article in press: February 13, 2015
Published online: May 21, 2015
Processing time: 155 Days and 6.9 Hours
AIM: To investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms of miR-451 to inhibit proliferation of esophageal carcinoma cell line EC9706.
METHODS: Assays for cell growth, apoptosis and invasion were used to evaluate the effects of miR-451 expression on EC cells. Luciferase reporter and Western blot assays were used to test whether cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2D (CDKN2D) and MAP3K1 act as major targets of miR-451.
RESULTS: The results showed that CDKN2D and MAP3K1 are direct targets of miR-451. CDKN2D and MAP3K1 overexpression reversed the effect of miR-451. MiR-451 inhibited the proliferation of EC9706 by targeting CDKN2D and MAP3K1.
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that miR-451 might be a novel prognostic biomarker and a potential target for the treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the future.
Core tip: Recently miR-451 has been reported to be tumor suppressor in human cancer cells. In the previous studies we have reported that miR-451 expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues was significantly reduced, and that upregulated expression of miR-451 induced apoptosis and suppressed cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis in esophageal carcinoma. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we supposed and showed that cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2D (CDKN2D) and MAP3K1 are the targets of miR-451 by the bioinformatics algorithms (TargetScan and miRBase). Moreover, we found that CDKN2D and MAP3K1 contributed to ESCC malignancy.