microRNA-216a-5p inhibits the development of gastric cancer through target combination with TCTN1

BACKGROUND: We aimed at investigating microRNA-216a-5p expression in gastric cancer (GC) tissues and further exploring whether microRNA-216a-5p suppresses GC progression through interacting with TCTN1.METHODS: microRNA-216a-5p expression in 60 pairs of GC tissues and adjacent ones was studied by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis, and the relationship between microRNA-216a-5p and clinical indicators as wells as prognosis of GC patients was also analyzed. At the same time, qRT-PCR was conducted to further verify microRNA-216a-5p level in GC cells. The impacts of microRNA-216a-5p on GC cell functions were evaluated using cell counting kit-8, plate cloning and Transwell experiments. Meanwhile, we studied the specific regulatory rela-tionship between microRNA-216a-5p and TCTN1 in depth.RESULTS: Our data showed that microRNA-216a-5p level in GC tumor specimens was remarkably lower than that in adjacent ones. In comparison to patients in group of high microRNA-216a-5p expression, patients in group of low ex-pression showed an increased metastasis incidence and a lower survival rate. Cell functional experiments suggested that microRNA-216a-5p mimics markedly attenuated the proliferative and migratory capacities of GC cells. Bioinformatics analysis suggest that microRNA-216a-5p can bind to its target gene TCTN1, which was confirmed by luciferase assay. Further, qPCR results revealed a negative correlation between the expression of TCTN1 and microRNA-216a-5p in GC tumor tissues. Finally, in vitro cell experiments suggested that overexpression of TCTN1 could reverse the inhibitory impact of upregulation of microRNA-216a-5p on GC cell functions.CONCLUSIONS: microRNA-216a-5p, abnormally lowly expressed in GC tissues, is markedly relevant to the high me-tastasis incidence and the poor prognosis of GC patients; in addition, microRNA-216a-5p inhibited GC's migration and proliferation capabilities through regulating TCTN1.(Cite this article as: Xu X, Gao F, Wang J, Long C, Tao L, Ding L, et al. microRNA-216a-5p inhibits the development of gas-tric cancer through target combination with TCTN1. Minerva Med 2023;114:323-31. DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4806.20.06628-8)

Automated summary

This study investigated the expression of microRNA-216a-5p in gastric cancer tissues and its interaction with TCTN1 in suppressing gastric cancer progression. The results showed that microRNA-216a-5p was significantly downregulated in gastric cancer tissues and its low expression was associated with increased metastasis and poor prognosis. Functional experiments demonstrated that microRNA-216a-5p inhibited the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells by regulating TCTN1. These findings suggest that microRNA-216a-5p plays a critical role in gastric cancer development and may serve as a potential therapeutic target.