TY - JOUR AB - Increasing evidence has revealed that aberrant expression of miRNAs contributes to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression. However, the roles and mechanisms of various miRNAs in NSCLC remain to be determined. In the present study, we confirmed that reduced miR-212 expression was present in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Our clinical analysis revealed that the reduced miR-212 expression was significantly correlated with poor prognostic features including positive lymph node metastasis and advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage. Moreover, we demonstrated that miR-212 is a novel independent prognostic marker for predicting 5-year survival of NSCLC patients. The ectopic overexpression of miR-212 inhibited cell migration, invasion and EMT, while downregulated miR-212 reversed the effect. In addition, miR-212 regulated SOX4 by directly binding to its 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR), leading to suppression of EMT progression. In clinical samples of NSCLC, miR-212 was negatively correlated with SOX4, which was upregulated in NSCLC. Alteration in SOX4 expression reversed the functional effects of miR-212 in regards to migration, invasion and EMT in the NSCLC cells. In conclusion, our data indicated that miR-212 functions as a tumor-suppressor gene by regulating EMT and metastasis of NSCLC by targeting SOX4 signaling, and may represent a novel potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker for NSCLC. AD - Department of Hematology and Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Gongshu, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310015, P.R. China Department of Occupational Medicine, Tai'an Central Hospital Branch, Tai'an, Shandong 271000, P.R. China AU - Tang,Tingting AU - Huan,Liting AU - Zhang,Shujuan AU - Zhou,Hui AU - Gu,Lei AU - Chen,Xiaohui AU - Zhang,Liang DA - 2017/10/01 DO - 10.3892/or.2017.5885 EP - 2250 IS - 4 JO - Oncol Rep KW - microRNA-212 lung cancer SOX4 EMT invasion PY - 2017 SN - 1021-335X 1791-2431 SP - 2243 ST - MicroRNA-212 functions as a tumor-suppressor in human non-small cell lung cancer by targeting SOX4 T2 - Oncology Reports TI - MicroRNA-212 functions as a tumor-suppressor in human non-small cell lung cancer by targeting SOX4 UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2017.5885 VL - 38 ER -