MicroRNA-144-3p Inhibits Tumorigenesis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by downregulating ERO1L

Xian Li; Yong Li; Chao Jiang; Liang Chen; Ning Gan

doi:10.7150/jca.33267

MicroRNA-144-3p Inhibits Tumorigenesis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by downregulating ERO1L

J Cancer. 2020 Jan 1;11(3):759-768. doi: 10.7150/jca.33267. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Xian Li^{1

2

3}, Yong Li^{1

2

3}, Chao Jiang^{1

2

3}, Liang Chen^{1

2

3}, Ning Gan^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
² Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and Biomedical Sciences, Chongqing, China.
³ Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering of Higher Education, Chongqing, China.

Abstract

An increasing number of studies indicate that miR-144-3p is dysregulated in numerous cancers, but its role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains largely unknown. Herein we demonstrated that miR-144-3p expression was significantly downregulated in OSCC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, the low level of miR-144-3p expression was associated with the clinical characteristics of OSCC patients. Furthermore, ectopic expression of miR-144-3p inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of OSCC cells in vitro, and blunted the tumorigenic ability of OSCC cells in vivo. Additionally, the levels of miR-144-3p were negatively correlated with the expression status of endoplasmic reticulum oxidoreduction-1-like (ERO1L) in OSCC cell lines. Subsequently, we identified that ERO1L was a direct target of miR-144-3p. Intriguingly, we found that miR-144-3p downregulation of ERO1L inhibited the activity of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) in OSCC cells. Therefore, miR-144-3p suppresses tumorigenesis by targeting ERO1L/STAT3 signaling pathway in OSCC. miR-144-3p may a candidate target for OSCC treatment.

Keywords: ERO1L; OSCC; STAT3; miR-144-3p; tumorigenesis.