Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer in most countries. Increasing studies have demonstrated that dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) can contribute to cancer progression. In this study, we showed that miR-320 was underexpressed in ovarian cancer samples compared to their non-tumor tissues. The expression of Twist homolog 1 (TWIST1) in ovarian cancer tissues was upregulated compared with that in the non-tumorous tissues. We found that the expression of TWIST1 was inversely correlated with that of miR-320 in the ovarian cancer. Overexpression of miR-320 suppressed cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion in ovarian cancer. We identified TWIST1 as a direct target gene of miR-320 in the ovarian cancer cell. Overexpression of TWIST1 promoted the ovarian cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion. Ectopic expression of TWIST1 restored the effects of miR-320 on cell proliferation, cell cycle and invasion. These findings revealed that miR-320 was a tumor suppressive gene that supressed cell prloferation, cycle and invasion through targeting TWIST1 in ovarian cancer.
Keywords: Ovarian cancer; TWIST1; miR-320; microRNAs.