MicroRNA-26a-5p inhibits breast cancer cell growth by suppressing RNF6 expression

MicroRNA-26a-5p (miR-26a-5p) has been reported to be involved in the tumorigenesis of several tumors, but its function in breast cancer is still unknown. In this study, miR-26a-5p was found significantly downregulated in both of the breast cancer tissues and cell lines, and low expression of miR-26a-5p predicted a poor prognosis for breast cancer patients. Overexpression of miR-26a-5p could significantly inhibit breast cancer cell growth. Further studies revealed that overexpression of miR-26a-5p downregulated the protein levels of Cyclin D1, CDK4, and CDK6, but upregulated the expression levels of p21, p27, and p53. In mechanism, miR-26a-5p targeted the 3'UTR of ring finger protein 6 (RNF6) mRNA and inhibited RNF6 expression in breast cancer cells. Moreover, overexpression of miR-26a-5p inhibited RNF6/ER alpha/Bcl-xL axis in breast cancer cells. In contrast, inhibiting miR-26a-5p upregulated RNF6/ER alpha/Bcl-xL axis. Further studies indicated that miR-26a-5p mediated RNF6/ER alpha/Bcl-xL axis through regulating the stability of ER alpha protein. Collectively, downregulation of miR-26a-5p plays essential roles in breast cancer by mediating RNF6/ER alpha/Bcl-xL axis, which might provide important implications for the therapeutics of breast cancer.