Overexpressed miRNA-137 Inhibits Human Glioma Cells Growth by Targeting Rac1

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that miR-137 functions as a tumor suppressor in various cancers, but its role in the initiation and development of gliomas is still unknown. Currently, we found that miR-137 exhibited the most significant increase in normal brain tissues compared with glioma specimens, and the miR-137 expression was greatly decreased with the ascending of tumor pathological grades. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-137 in vitro by chemically synthesized miR-137 mimics suppressed the proliferation, inhibited cell cycle arrest in the G1/G0 phase, and induced cell apoptosis. The tumor-suppressive effects of miR-137 were indeed induced by Rac1, which was verified as a direct target of miR-137. These findings indicate that miR-137 inhibits the growth of gliomas cells by directly targeting Rac1, suggesting that miR-137 could be a new important therapeutic strategy for glioma treatment and warrants further investigation.

Involvement of a Rac1-Dependent Macropinocytosis Pathway in Plasmid DNA Delivery by Electrotransfection

“…74 Because mechanisms of its activation in our study are unknown, we decided not to perform the experiments using antagonists so that we could avoid non-specific activation of other targets. Instead, we introduced two mutant variants of Rac1 into cells to study the direct effects of Rac1 on electrotransfection.…”

MicroRNA-873 (MiRNA-873) Inhibits Glioblastoma Tumorigenesis and Metastasis by Suppressing the Expression of IGF2BP1

“…For instance, miR-21 acts as an antiapoptotic factor in GBM by targeting the p53 network (8 -10); miR-10b is involved in the cell cycle and programmed cell death via regulating the expression of Bim, TFAP2C, p16, and p21 (11); miR-218 inhibits cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and stem-like qualities by targeting Bmi1 (12); miR-195 negatively regulates the proliferation of glioma cells by down-regulating the expression of cyclin D1 and cyclin E1 (13); miR-137 inhibits the growth of glioma cells by directly targeting Rac1 (14); and miR-16 functions as a tumor suppressor gene in glioma growth and invasiveness via the inhibition of BCL2 and the NF-KB1/MMP-9 signaling pathway (15). All of these miRNAs play important roles in the development of the malignant GBM phenotype.…”

Aberrant expression of miRNAs predicts recurrence and survival in stage-II colorectal cancer patients from Egypt

“…In the current study we assessed the expression levels of five miRNAs (miR-21, miR-137, miR-145, miR-320 and miR-498) in the blood and tissues of stage II CRC patients from Egypt. These miRNAs were previously mentioned in relation to the development and progression of CRC cases from Europe and USA [4,6,7,13]. Fig.…”

“…Aberrant expression of certain miRNAs that mediate cell growth and tumor progression have been reported in CRC cases from Europe and USA using different miRNA microarray assays. Among these are miR-21, miR-137, miR-145, miR-320 and miR-498 [6,7].…”