IntroductionCervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in women, which occurs in the cervix and vagina (1). According to worldwide statistics, there are about 500, 000 new cases of CC every year, accounting for 5% of all new cancer cases, of which more than 80% are in developing countries (2, 3). Despite the increasing awareness of cancer prevention and treatment in recent years, and the popularity of related vaccines, the incidence rate of CC is still rising, and the age of audience becomes younger and younger (4). A number of studies have shown that persistent high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is a relatively clear risk factor for CC. In women's lives, cervical HPV infection is quite common, The genital tract infection rate of HPV is more than 75%, but most of them can subside by themselves (5, 6). The main current treatments for CC are surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other adjuvant therapy (7). It is worth emphasizing that the early symptoms of CC are not obvious, some patients are in advanced stage at the time of diagnosis, and lose the best opportunity for treatment, which seriously threatens the health and quality of women's lives (8). As the disease progresses, the following manifestations including vaginal bleeding, discharge of vaginal fluid, frequent urination, urgent urination, constipation, lower limb swelling and pain, etc may appear (9). Therefore, it is necessary to explore the potential mechanisms of CC for early diagnosis and effective treatment.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a kind of non-coding single-stranded RNA molecule with about 18-25 nucleotides in length (10). MiRNAs cause degradation or translation inhibition of target gene mRNA through specifically pairing with 3'-UTR region of target gene mRNA, further regulating the expression of target genes at post-transcriptional level (11). According to statistics, miRNAs regulate at least 30% of human genes and play an important role in the normal development of the body (12). However, the disorder of miRNA expression is also common in many malignant tumors, including CC. For example, miR-21 and miR-155 are significantly over-expressed in CC tissues and may be helpful in the prediction of both HPVpositive and HPV-negative cases of CC (13). MiR-501 is up-regulated, whereas CYLD protein is down-regulated in CC tissues, and down-regulation of miR-501 inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion, and promotes apoptosis of CC cells via targeting CYLD mediated with NF-κB p65 signaling pathway (14). MiR-1284 is down-expressed in CC tissues and CC cell lines. Up-regulation of miR-1284 suppresses proliferation and invasion, promotes apoptosis of CC cells, and enhances the sensitivity of CC cells to cisplatin achieved by targeting HMGB1 (15). These findings suggest that miRNAs, acting as oncogenes or tumor sup-