AUTHOR=Wei Min , Yu Hailang , Cai Cuixia , Gao Rui , Liu Xuhua , Zhu Huimin 

TITLE=MiR-3194-3p Inhibits Breast Cancer Progression by Targeting Aquaporin1

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2020.01513

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2020.01513

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=Increasing evidences indicate that the abnormal expression of Aquaporin1 (AQP1) is associated with a wide variety of human cancers including breast cancer (BC). In the present study, we found miR-3194-3p regulated AQP1 expression targeting the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) using miRNA target prediction algorithms.  miR-3194-3p expression was markedly down-regulated and AQP1 expression was significantly up-regulated in BC tissues and cell lines as compared with adjacent nontumor tissues and a normal human mammary epithelial cell line. A statistically significant inverse correlation was found between AQP1 and miR-3194-3p levels in tumor tissues from 30 BC patients. Gain- and loss-of-function assays demonstrated that miR-3194-3p mimic remarkably inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion and promoted apoptosis in MDA-MB-231 cells, while miR-3194-3p inhibitors notably promoted cell proliferation, migration, invasion and inhibited apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. Dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed that AQP1 was a direct target gene of miR-3194-3p. Over-expression of AQP1 by pBABE-puro-AQP1 vector partially abrogated the effect of miR-3194-3p mimic in MDA-MB-231 cells. Taken together, these results suggest that miR-3194-3p suppresses BC cell proliferation, migration and invasion by targeting AQP1, providing a novel insight into the BC treatment.