The miR-106b/NR2F2-AS1/PLEKHO2 Axis Regulates Migration and Invasion of Colorectal Cancer through the MAPK Pathway

N6-methyladenosine facilitates arsenic-induced neoplastic phenotypes of human bronchial epithelial cells by promoting miR-106b-5p maturation

Arsenic is a widespread carcinogen and an important etiological factor for lung cancer. Dysregulated miRNAs have been implicated in arsenic carcinogenesis and the mechanisms of arsenic-induced dysregulated miRNAs have not been fully elucidated. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is known to modulate pri-miRNA processing. However, whether m6A-mediated pri-miRNA processing is involved in arsenic carcinogenesis is poorly understood. Here, we found that m6A modification was significantly increased in arsenite-transformed human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells (0.5 µM arsenite, 16 weeks). Meanwhile, METTL3 was significantly upregulated at week 12 and 16 during cell transformation. The proliferation, migration, invasion, and anchorage-independent growth of arsenite-transformed cells were inhibited by the reduction of m6A levels through METTL3 knockdown. Further experiments suggest that the oncogene miR-106b-5p is a potentially essential m6A target mediating arsenic-induced lung cancer. miR-106b-5p was observed to be upregulated after exposure to arsenite for 12 and 16 weeks, and the reduction of m6A levels caused by METTL3 knockdown inhibited miR-106b-5p maturation in arsenite-transformed cells. What's more, miR-106b-5p overexpression successfully rescued METTL3 knockdown-induced inhibition of the neoplastic phenotypes of transformed cells. Additionally, Basonuclin 2 (BNC2) was uncovered as a potential target of miR-106b-5p and downregulated by METTL3 via enhancing miR-106b-5p maturation. Additionally, the METTL3 inhibitor STM2457 suppressed neoplastic phenotypes of arsenite-transformed BEAS-2B cells by blocking pri-miR-106b methylation. These results demonstrate that m6A modification promotes the neoplastic phenotypes of arsenite-transformed BEAS-2B cells through METTL3/miR-106b-5p/BNC2 pathway, providing a new prospective for understanding arsenic carcinogenesis.

JSCSNCP-LMA: a method for predicting the association of lncRNA-miRNA

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have long been considered the "white elephant" on the genome because they lack the ability to encode proteins. However, in recent years, more and more biological experiments and clinical reports have proved that ncRNAs account for a large proportion in organisms. At the same time, they play a decisive role in the biological processes such as gene expression and cell growth and development. Recently, it has been found that short sequence non-coding RNA(miRNA) and long sequence non-coding RNA(lncRNA) can regulate each other, which plays an important role in various complex human diseases. In this paper, we used a new method (JSCSNCP-LMA) to predict lncRNA-miRNA with unknown associations. This method combined Jaccard similarity algorithm, self-tuning spectral clustering similarity algorithm, cosine similarity algorithm and known lncRNA-miRNA association networks, and used the consistency projection to complete the final prediction. The results showed that the AUC values of JSCSNCP-LMA in fivefold cross validation (fivefold CV) and leave-one-out cross validation (LOOCV) were 0.9145 and 0.9268, respectively. Compared with other models, we have successfully proved its superiority and good extensibility. Meanwhile, the model also used three different lncRNA-miRNA datasets in the fivefold CV experiment and obtained good results with AUC values of 0.9145, 0.9662 and 0.9505, respectively. Therefore, JSCSNCP-LMA will help to predict the associations between lncRNA and miRNA.

Circular RNA circVPRBP serves as a microRNA-106b-5p sponge to regulate proliferation and metastasis of cervical cancer cells via tripartite motif-containing protein 3

Cervical cancer is a common malignant gynecological tumor for females all over the world. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are being found to have relevance to various human cancers, including cervical cancer. This study is designed to explore the role and mechanism of circRNA DDB1- and CUL4-associated factor 1 (circVPRBP, also known as hsa_circ_0065898) on the progression of cervical cancer. CircVPRBP, microRNA-106b-5p (miR-106b-5p), and tripartite motif-containing protein 3 (TRIM3) levels were determined by real-time quantitative PCR. Cell proliferative ability, apoptosis rate, cell cycle progression, migration, and invasion were detected by 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine, colony formation assay, flow cytometry, and transwell assays. Protein levels of matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2) and matrix MMP9, and TRIM3 were measured by western blot assay. The binding relationship between miR-106b-5p and circVPRBP or TRIM3 was predicted by Starbase and then verified by a dual-luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation assays. The biological role of circVPRBP on cervical tumor growth was examined by the xenograft tumor model in vivo. CircVPRBP and TRIM3 were decreased, and miR-106b-5p was increased in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, circVPRBP could suppress cell growth and metastasis of cervical cancer cells in vitro. Mechanically, circVPRBP could regulate TRIM3 expression by sponging miR-106b-5p. Also, circVPRBP upregulation repressed tumor growth of cervical cancer cells in vivo. CircVPRBP could inhibit the malignant biological behavior of cervical cancer cells by miR-106b-5p/TRIM3 axis, providing a promising therapeutic target for cervical cancer treatment.

Hsa-let-7c-5p, hsa-miR-130b-3p, and hsa-miR-142-3p as Novel miRNA Biomarkers for Melanoma Progression

This study aimed to screen miRNA biomarkers for melanoma progression. Raw melanoma data were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE34460, GSE35579, GSE18509, and GSE24996) and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Then, all differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) between benign vs. primary, metastatic vs. benign, and metastatic vs. primary groups were obtained in the GSE34460 and GSE35579 datasets, and the miRNAs related to disease progression were further screened. Then, the miRNA-gene network was constructed, followed by enrichment, survival, and cluster analyses. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs), tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and tumor mutation burden (TMB) between subtypes were analyzed. miRNAs were verified in the GSE18509 and GSE24996 datasets. A total of 132 and 209 DEmiRNAs were obtained in the GSE34460 and GSE35579 datasets, respectively, and 27 DEmiRNAs related to disease progression were screened. hsa-miR-106b-5p, hsa-miR-27b-3p, and hsa-miR-141-3p had a higher degree and were regulated by numerous genes in the miRNA-gene network. Moreover, four miRNAs were associated with prognosis: hsa-let-7c-5p, hsa-miR-130b-3p, hsa-miR-142-3p, and hsa-miR-509-3p. Furthermore, the bidirectional hierarchical clustering of 27 miRNAs was classified into three subtypes, and TMB and four types of immune cells, including activated dendritic cells, naïve CD4 T cells, M1 macrophages, and plasma cells, showed significant differences among the three subtypes. The expression levels of most miRNAs in the GSE18509 and GSE24996 datasets were consistent with those in the training dataset. These miRNAs, including hsa-let-7c-5p, hsa-miR-130b-3p, and hsa-miR-142-3p, and activated dendritic cells, naïve CD4 T cells, M1 macrophages, and plasma cells may play vital roles in the pathogenesis of melanoma.