Pancreatic cancer is a fatal disease with a high mortality rate and poor prognosis worldwide. The aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRs) is associated with cancer development and progression. The present study aimed to evaluate the functional role of miR‑142‑5p in migration and invasion, and investigated its underlying molecular mechanism in pancreatic cancer cells. First, it was identified that miR‑142‑5p expression was downregulated in pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines by reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, phosphoinositide‑3‑kinase catalytic subunit α (PIK3CA) was identified as a target of miR‑142‑5p. The expression of PIK3CA was upregulated in tumor tissues and its expression was negatively regulated by miR‑142‑5p expression. Notably, overexpression of miR‑142‑5p inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion of PanC1 cells, while PIK3CA reversed this inhibition. In addition, miR‑142‑5p suppressed the expression of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)9, as well as phosphorylated protein kinase B (AKT) protein level, while PIK3CA reversed the suppression induced by miR‑142‑5p. In conclusion, miR‑142‑5p functions as a tumor suppressor, which inhibits the migration and invasion of pancreatic cancer by suppressing the expression of FAK and MMP9, as well as the phosphatidylinositol 3‑kinase/AKT signaling pathway by targeting PIK3CA. These findings suggest that miR‑142‑5p may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: mir-142-5p; phosphoinositide-3-kinase catalytic subunit α; pancreatic cancer; migration; invasion.