Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is the main pathological type of pulmonary malignant tumors; at present, less than 10% of patients with advanced metastatic LUSC live for more than 5 years. We previously reported that low expression of miRNA‐126‐3p is associated with the occurrence and progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Here, we examined expression of miRNA‐126‐3p in 23 samples from patients with LUSCs and 23 normal control specimens by quantitative real‐time PCR (RT‐qPCR). Associations between miRNA‐126‐3p expression and clinical features were studied from materials derived from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) chips and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Twelve online platforms were used to identify candidate target genes of miRNA‐126‐3p. Further analyses of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), Gene Ontology (GO), and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network were performed on the target genes. GEO microarray analysis, TCGA data mining, RT‐qPCR, and integration analysis consistently reported low expression of miRNA‐126‐3p in LUSC. A total of 42 genes were identified as potential target genes of miRNA‐126‐3p from online platforms, GEO microarrays, and the TCGA database. GO and KEGG analyses demonstrated that the target genes are involved in several biological processes that promote the progression of LUSC. SOX2, E2F2, and E2F3 were selected as hub genes from the PPI network for further analysis. In summary, our results suggest that the low expression of miRNA‐126‐3p may play a role in promoting the development of LUSC and miRNA‐126‐3p may be a biomarker for LUSC early diagnosis and prognosis.

中文翻译：

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miRNA-126-3p 的下调与肺鳞状细胞癌的进展和不良预后相关。

肺鳞状细胞癌（LUSC）是肺部恶性肿瘤的主要病理类型；目前，只有不到10%的晚期转移性LUSC患者存活超过5年。我们之前报道miRNA-126-3p的低表达与肺腺癌（LUAD）的发生和进展相关。在这里，我们通过定量实时 PCR (RT-qPCR) 检测了 23 个 LUSC 患者样本和 23 个正常对照样本中 miRNA-126-3p 的表达。根据来自基因表达综合 (GEO) 芯片和癌症基因组图谱 (TCGA) 数据库的材料研究了 miRNA-126-3p 表达与临床特征之间的关联。使用 12 个在线平台来鉴定 miRNA-126-3p 的候选靶基因。对目标基因进行了京都基因和基因组百科全书（KEGG）、基因本体论（GO）和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用（PPI）网络的进一步分析。GEO 微阵列分析、TCGA 数据挖掘、RT-qPCR 和整合分析一致报告 LUSC 中 miRNA-126-3p 的低表达。通过在线平台、GEO 微阵列和 TCGA 数据库，总共鉴定出 42 个基因为 miRNA-126-3p 的潜在靶基因。GO和KEGG分析表明，靶基因参与了促进LUSC进展的多个生物过程。选择SOX2、E2F2和E2F3作为 PPI 网络的中心基因进行进一步分析。总之，我们的结果表明，miRNA-126-3p的低表达可能在促进LUSC的发生发展中发挥作用，并且miRNA-126-3p可能成为LUSC早期诊断和预后的生物标志物。