Concurrent suppression of integrin alpha5, radixin, and RhoA phenocopies the effects of miR-31 on metastasis.
miR-31 inhibits breast cancer metastasis via the pleiotropic suppression of a cohort of prometastatic target genes that include integrin alpha(5) (ITGA5), radixin (RDX), and RhoA. We previously showed that the concomitant overexpression of ITGA5, RDX, and RhoA was capable of overriding the antimetastatic effects of ectopically expressed miR-31 in vivo. However, these prior studies failed to investigate whether the combined suppression of the endogenous mRNAs encoding these three proteins recapitulated the in vivo consequences of miR-31 expression on metastasis. We show here that short hairpin RNA-mediated concurrent downregulation of ITGA5, RDX, and RhoA is sufficient to phenocopy the full spectrum of described influences of miR-31 on metastasis in vivo, including the effects of this microRNA (miRNA) on local invasion, early post-intravasation events, and metastatic colonization. These findings provide mechanistic insights into the metastatic process and have implications about the importance of pleiotropy for the biological actions of miRNAs.
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
Scott
S
Valastyan
Amelia
A
Chang
Nathan
N
Benaich
Ferenc
F
Reinhardt
Robert A
RA
Weinberg
D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D039482:Integrin alpha5 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000556:secondary; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D016513:Mice, SCID; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000502:physiology*; D010641:Phenotype; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D039482:Integrin alpha5; C534612:MIRN31 microRNA, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C066737:RHOA protein, human; C071776:radixin; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein