The aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been found in various types of cancer.
The present study found miR-20a to be significantly upregulated in prostate cancer compared with normal prostate tissues. The proliferation and colony formation assays revealed that the downregulation of miR-20a by miR-20a inhibitor suppresses the proliferation of MDA-PCa-2b cells in vitro and also inhibits tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, a gap junction protein, α 1 (CX43), was identified as a direct target gene of miR-20a. The upregulation of CX43 was detected in MDA-PCa-2b cells after treatment with miR-20a inhibitor both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, the findings show that miR-20a significantly contributes to the progression of prostate cancer by targeting CX43.
Written by:
Li X, Pan JH, Song B, Xiong EQ, Chen ZW, Zhou ZS, Su YP. Are you the author?
Urologic Institute of PLA; Southwest Hospital; Third Military Medical University; Chongqing, China.
Reference: Cancer Biol Ther. 2012 Aug 1;13(10):890-8.
doi: 10.4161/cbt.20841
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22785209
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