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MiR-137 inhibits the proliferation, invasion and migration of glioma via targeting to regulate EZH2

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Abstract

Background

Gliomas are common malignant tumors in the nervous system, known for poor prognosis and low survival rate.

Objective

This study aims to explore functions of miR-137 in glioma progression and identify messenger RNAs (mRNA) regulated by miR-137, which provides new ideas for further exploration of glioma therapeutic targets.

Methods

Gene expression data were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas database, and abnormally expressed miRNAs and mRNAs in glioma were analyzed. The expression of genes in 20 pairs of clinical tissue samples and glioma cell lines were detected through qRT-PCR, and the expression of proteins was detected through Western blot. Changes in cell proliferative level after transfection were detected via CCK8 assay, and changes in cell migratory and invasive abilities were detected by Transwell assay. Besides, dual-luciferase reporter assay was employed to testify binding relationship between two genes.

Results

Our study found that miR-137 was significantly and lowly expressed in glioma tissue and cell lines, and the prognoses of glioma patients with highly expressed miR-137 were more optimistic. Overexpressed miR-137 could remarkably inhibit proliferative, invasive and migratory abilities of glioma cells U87, while transfection of miR-137 inhibitor presented an opposite effect. Additionally, EZH2 was a direct target of miR-137 and overexpressed EZH2 effectively reversed the effect of miR-137 on glioma proliferation and migration.

Conclusions

Our study found that miR-137 could suppress the proliferation, invasion and migration of glioma cells through regulating the expression of EZH2. So far, we have found a novel regulatory pair that influences glioma progression, providing a basis for further development of new therapeutic strategies.

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Availability of data and materials

The data and materials in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Fourth Department of Neurosurgery, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, No. 27, Wenhua Road, North District, Tangshan, 063000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Jingshun Gu, Juntong Wang, Aiwu You, Jun Li, Yuyan Zhang, Xuehua Ge, Kun Zhang & Dongchun Wang

  2. The Fourth Department of Neurology, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, No. 27, Wenhua Road, North District, Tangshan, 063000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Guomin Rao

  3. The Second Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Tangshan Gongren Hospital, No. 27, Wenhua Road, North District, Tangshan, 063000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Xuan Liu

Authors
  1. Jingshun Gu
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  2. Juntong Wang
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  3. Aiwu You
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  4. Jun Li
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  5. Yuyan Zhang
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  6. Guomin Rao
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  7. Xuehua Ge
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  8. Kun Zhang
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  9. Xuan Liu
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  10. Dongchun Wang
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Contributions

JS performed and guided the experiments and wrote the manuscript draft. JT and AW performed the data analysis and performed the experiments. JL and YY participated in the data analysis and acquisition. GM, XH, XL and KZ conceived of the experiments and revised the manuscript. DC determined the final version and performed the experiments.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongchun Wang.

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Conflict of interest

Author Jingshun Gu, author Juntong Wang, author Aiwu You, author Jun Li, author Yuyan Zhang, author Guomin Rao, author Xuehua Ge, author Kun Zhang, author Xuan Liu and author Dongchun Wang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Cite this article

Gu, J., Wang, J., You, A. et al. MiR-137 inhibits the proliferation, invasion and migration of glioma via targeting to regulate EZH2. Genes Genom 43, 1157–1165 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-021-01117-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13258-021-01117-9

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