Malignant glioma is the most common and lethal type of primary tumor of the central nervous system. The incidence of glioma is increasing year by year. In recent years, a variety of new treatment methods have emerged, among which gene therapy has become a hotspot. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding single-strand RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional and/or translational level by binding loosely complimentary sequences in the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of target mRNAs. Several miRNAs have been reported to modulate glioma progression. This study aimed to determine the function of miR-30b-5p in glioma and its underlying molecular mechanism. miR-30b-5p expression was significantly lower in gliomas than the normal brain tissues. Overexpression of miR-30b-5p was found to significantly inhibit glioma cell proliferation in vitro. Further, MTDH expression was significantly higher in the gliomas compared with the normal brain tissues. In addition, MTDH was validated as direct target of miR-30b-5p. Moreover, cellular proliferation was increased after MTDH overexpression in the glioma cells, which reversed the effects of miR-30b-5p. Taken together, these results reveal miR-30b-5p impacts glioma cell proliferation via direct targeting MTDH and could be a potential novel therapeutic target for the treatment of glioma.
Keywords: MTDH; Proliferation; miR-30b-5p.