Therapeutic effects of oligo-single-stranded DNA mimicking of hsa-miR-15a-5p on multiple myeloma

Cancer Gene Ther. 2020 Dec;27(12):869-877. doi: 10.1038/s41417-020-0161-3. Epub 2020 Jan 28.

Abstract

Despite the fact that a few novel agents improve the outcome of patients, MM remains incurable. Hence, developing a novel treatment strategy may prove to be promising for the clinical management of MM. Noncoding small RNAs, a cluster of RNAs that do not encode functional proteins, have been underlined that play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of MM. Our previous study indicated that miR-15a acted as a tumor suppressor, which inhibited the cell proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of MM cells. The level of miR-15a was downregulated in MM cells and correlated with inferior outcome of MM patients. In the present study, we first developed an oligo-single-stranded DNA mimicking the sequence of hsa-miR-15a-5p (OMM-15a) and modified with locked nucleic acid (LNA-15a) to evaluate its anti-MM effects. Our results indicated that the LNA-15a presented an exciting anti-MM effect that showed notable cell growth suppression and apoptosis promotion in MM and other cancer cell lines through downregulating the expression level of target genes BCL-2, VEGF-A, and PHF19. Moreover, LNA-15a treatment significantly improved the anti-MM activity of bortezomib with the synergism effect in OCI-My5 MM cells. In our in vivo study, LNA-15a treatment significantly suppressed the tumor growth, and prolonged the survival of mice compared with the control group. However, our results indicated that the native form of oligo-single-stranded DNA mimic of hsa-miR-15a-5p (OMM-15a) without any modification had no effective inhibition on cell growth, even after increasing the dosage of OMM-15a in the treatment. Altogether, our finding provides the preclinical rationale to support the oligo-single-stranded DNA mimic of hsa-miR-15a with LNA modification, which is a promising tool for the therapy of both MM and other tumors with miR-15a downregulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation / physiology
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / administration & dosage*
  • DNA, Single-Stranded / genetics*
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Multiple Myeloma / genetics
  • Multiple Myeloma / therapy*
  • Transfection

Substances

  • DNA, Single-Stranded
  • MIRN15 microRNA, human
  • MicroRNAs