miR-204-5p Suppress Lymph Node Metastasis via Regulating CXCL12 and CXCR4 in Gastric Cancer

J Cancer. 2020 Mar 5;11(11):3199-3206. doi: 10.7150/jca.33273. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) exhibits a poor prognosis due to extensive invasion and lymphatic metastasis in the advanced stage. In this study, we firstly found that the expression of miR-204-5p markedly decreased in GC patients' tissue and serum, especially in GC with lymphatic metastasis. And ROC analysis showed miR-204-5p also served as a predicted factor for the lymphatic metastasis of GC. CXCL12 and CXCR4 were predicted and confirmed as the functional targets of miR-204-5p by Targetscan analysis, dual luciferase assay and western blotting analysis. In addition, we further determined that miR-204-5p suppresses migration and invasion in GC. This finding elucidates new functions and mechanisms for miR-204-5p in GC development and provides a new potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic targets for GC.

Keywords: CXCL12; CXCR4; gastric cancer; invasion; lymph node metastasis; miR-204-5p; migration.