Human miR-31 targets radixin and inhibits migration and invasion of glioma cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a novel group of short RNAs, about 20-22 nucleotide in length, that regulate gene expression in a post-transcriptional manner by affecting the stability or translation of mRNAs and play important roles in many biological processes. Many microRNAs have been implicated in glioblastoma. miR-31 is dysregulated in several types of cancer including colon, breast, prostate, gastric and lung cancers. However, the expression and role of miR-31 in glioblastoma are still unclear. In this study, we performed real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays on 10 glioblastoma and 7 normal brain tissues. We found that miR-31 is down-regulated in glioblastoma compared with normal brain tissues. Ectopic expression of miR-31 inhibited migration and invasion ability of U251 glioma cells. Expression profiling analysis revealed that miR-31 affected the cell migration and motility process by regulating migration and invasion related genes. Finally, we demonstrated that miR-31 targeted radixin predominantly via inhibition of protein translation instead of degradation of mRNA.