title: MicroRNA-373 is upregulated and targets TNFAIP1 in human gastric cancer, contributing to tumorigenesis.
abstract: The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in regulating gene expression is currently an area of intense interest. Previous studies have shown that miRNA-372 plays crucial roles in gastric tumorigenesis by targeting the mRNA of tumor necrosis factor, α-induced protein 1 (TNFAIP1). The present study showed that miR-373 is upregulated in gastric adenocarcinoma tissue and gastric carcinoma cell lines when compared to normal gastric tissues. The overexpression of miR-373 in the gastric cancer cells increased cell proliferation. A bioinformatics search revealed a conserved target site within the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of TNFAIP1, an immediate-early response gene of the endothelium induced by TNF-α. The overexpression of miR-373 caused the suppression of a luciferase reporter containing the TNFAIP1 3'UTR in the HEK293 cells and reduced the levels of TNFAIP1 protein in the AGS cells. The mRNA levels of TNFAIP1 in the gastric cancer and normal gastric tissues were negatively correlated with the expression levels of miR-373 in these tissues. Moreover, the knockdown of TNFAIP1 had a similar effect to the overexpression of miR-373. The overexpression of TNFAIP1 may partly rescue the inhibition of proliferation caused by the inhibitor, miR-373-ASO. Taken together, these findings demonstrate an oncogenic role for miR-373, similar to that of miR-372, in controlling cell growth through the downregulation of TNFAIP1.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of State Education Ministry of China, College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoting
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhiwen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Xizhi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Celi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jianlin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Shuanglin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: human gastric cancer; miRNA-373; tumor necrosis factor; α-induced protein 1