Low miR-1231 expression predicts poor prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer and accelerates cell proliferation, migration and invasion
Abstract Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been confirmed to be involved in the tumor progression of various cancer types. This study aimed to assess the prognostic significance and biological function of miR-1231 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The expression of miR-1231 was estimated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression analysis were used to evaluate the prognosis value of miR-1231 in patients with NSCLC. Cell experiments were performed to assess the biological function of miR-1231 in the tumor progression. Results In this study, we found that miR-1231 was an important tumor suppressor with significantly low expression in NSCLC tissues and cell lines compared with normal controls (all P < 0.001). MiR-1231 expression was significantly associated with tumor size (P = 0.037), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.001) and TNM stages (P = 0.001). Furthermore, the patients with low miR-1231 expression had shorter survival time than those with high miR-1231 expression (log-rank P = 0.010). In addition, miR-1231 was found to serve as an independent prognostic biomarker for the patients. The results of cell experiments indicated that miR-1231 downregulation could markedly promote NSCLC cell proliferation, migration and invasion, while miR-1231 overexpression could markedly inhibit NSCLC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Conclusion All the data revealed that a downregulated expression of miR-1231 predicts the poor prognosis of NSCLC and promotes the tumor cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Therefore, we considered that miR-1231 may serve as a therapeutic target for NSCLC treatment.