MicroRNA-655 attenuates the malignant biological behaviours of retinoblastoma cells by directly targeting PAX6 and suppressing the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways

Retraction in: /10.3892/or.2022.8385

  • Authors:
    • Min Zhang
    • Qiongxia Li
    • Yingzhe Pan
    • Hui Wang
    • Gang Liu
    • Hui Yin
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: February 13, 2018     https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6264
  • Pages: 2040-2050
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Abstract

Numerous studies have indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate signalling molecules by acting as oncogenes or tumour-suppressor genes in retinoblastoma (RB). Therefore, investigation of the expression pattern, biological roles and associated mechanisms of cancer-related miRNAs in RB may provide novel therapeutic targets for patients with this disease. miRNA-655 (miR-655) has been reported to be aberrantly expressed in many types of cancers. However, the expression pattern, detailed biological function and underlying molecular mechanisms of miR-655 in RB remain to be clarified. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to detect miR-655 in RB, investigate its biological roles in RB and determine the underlying molecular mechanisms. The results of the present study showed that miR-655 was significantly downregulated in RB tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-655 inhibited the proliferation and invasion ability while it increased the apoptosis of RB cells. Additionally, paired box 6 (PAX6) was identified as a direct target of miR-655 in RB. Furthermore, PAX6 was highly expressed in RB tissues and was negatively correlated with miR-655 expression. PAX6 knockdown recapitulated effects similar to those observed following miR-655 overexpression regarding the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of RB cells. Rescue experiments demonstrated that restoration of PAX6 expression reversed the tumour-suppressing roles of miR-655 in RB cells. Moreover, upregulation of miR-655 reduced activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase signalling pathways in RB cells through PAX6 regulation. Therefore, restoration of miR-655 expression may be a promising therapeutic strategy for treating patients with RB in the future.

Introduction

Retinoblastoma (RB), the most common primary malignancy in the retina, mainly affects infants and children less than 5 years of age and is responsible for 5% of the cases of blindness in children (1,2). In addition, the morbidity of RB is reportedly approximately one case/15,000-20,000 newborns worldwide (3). Patients with RB are often diagnosed at advanced stages in developing countries, and the survival rates of these patients are often worse than those of patients in developed countries (4,5). Multi-genetic or epigenetic alterations, such as high oncogene expression, loss of tumour suppressors and epigenetic changes of oncogenic methylation, contribute to RB formation and progression (69). Currently, the primary treatment methods for patients with RB are surgery (removal of the eyes), thermotherapy, cryotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy (10). Despite advances in treatments in the past few years, the prognosis of patients with RB remains unsatisfactory (11). Intracranial infiltration and secondary metastatic tumours are the major causes of death (12). Therefore, a full understanding of the biology and molecular mechanisms of RB and the development of novel therapeutic strategies for this malignancy are urgently needed.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a large family of single-stranded, noncoding and short RNA molecules 20–25 nucleotides in length (13). They negatively regulate gene expression by binding the complementary sequences located in the 3′-untranslated regions (3′-UTRs) of their target genes, causing mRNA degradation or inhibiting translation (14). Almost 30% of protein-coding genes have been estimated to be directly or indirectly regulated by miRNAs, suggesting that miRNAs may play pivotal roles in a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes, such as cell proliferation, cell survival, apoptosis, invasion, migration, angiogenesis, metabolism and differentiation (15,16). Over the past decades, an increasing number of studies have reported that miRNAs are aberrantly expressed in numerous types of human cancers and contribute to cancer initiation and progression (1719). Additionally, a growing body of evidence suggests that miRNAs serve as oncogenes or tumour suppressors in various types of human cancer depending on the characteristics of their target genes (20,21). Downregulated miRNAs may normally act as tumour-suppressor genes via negative regulation of oncogenes (22), whereas upregulated miRNAs may play oncogenic roles during tumour development by repressing tumour-suppressor genes (23). These findings suggest that miRNAs may be developed as efficient therapeutic targets for antitumour treatment.

miR-655, mapped to the 14q32.31 locus, has been reported to be aberrantly expressed in many types of cancers (2426). Dysregulation of miR-655 has been found to be closely associated with tumourigenesis and tumour development through regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and metastasis (2428). However, the expression pattern, detailed biological function and underlying molecular mechanisms of miR-655 in RB remain to be clarified. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to detect miR-655 in RB, investigate its biological roles in RB and determine its underlying molecular mechanisms.

Materials and methods

Tissue samples

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Xiangyang No. 1 People's Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Medicine (Xiangyang, Hubei, China). Signed written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the study. A total of 23 RB tissues were obtained from patients who underwent enucleation at Xiangyang No. 1 People's Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Medicine between February 2014 and November 2016. Eight normal retina samples were collected from pediatric ruptured globes. No patient underwent chemotherapy or radiotherapy prior to surgery. Tissue specimens were immediately snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and then stored at −80°C until further use.

Cell lines, culture conditions and transfection

Three human RB cell lines, namely, Y79, SO-RB50 and WERI-RB-1, were acquired from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC; Manassas, VA, USA). All cell lines were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10% heat-inactivated foetal bovine serum (FBS), 100 U/ml penicillin and 100 mg/ml streptomycin (all from Gibco, Grand Island, NY, USA), and then cultured at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2.

miR-655 mimics and miRNA mimic negative control (miR-NC) were obtained from Shanghai GenePharma Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). A small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting paired box 6 (PAX6) (PAX6 siRNA) and negative control siRNA (NC siRNA) were purchased from Guangzhou RiboBio Co., Ltd. (Guangzhou, China). PAX6 overexpression plasmid (pcDNA3.1-PAX6 and corresponding empty plasmid (pcDNA3.1) were chemically synthesised by GeneCopoeia (Guangzhou, China). For transfection, cells were seeded into 6-well plates at a density of 2×105 cells/well. Cells were transfected with miRNA mimics (100 pmol), siRNA (100 pmol) or plasmid (4 µg) using Lipofectamine® 2000 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) when 60–70% confluence was achieved, in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol. Subsequent to transfection for 6–8 h, cell culture medium was replaced with DMEM without antibiotics and incubated at 37°C with 5% CO2.

Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis

Total RNA was extracted from tissues or cells using TRIzol® reagent (Invitrogen Life Technologies; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. NanoDrop 2000/2000c (NanoDrop Technologies; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, USA) was utilised to detect the concentration of total RNA. Single-stranded cDNA for miR-655 expression analysis was synthesised by reverse-transcription using a TaqMan® MicroRNA Reverse Transcription kit (Applied Biosystems; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was carried out with TaqMan MicroRNA Assay kit (Applied Biosystems; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) on an Applied Biosystems 7300 Real-time PCR system (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol. To quantify PAX6 mRNA expression, total RNA was reversed transcribed into cDNA using PrimeScript™ RT Reagent kit (Takara Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Dalian China). Subsequently, qPCR was performed using SYBR Premix Ex Taq Master Mix (Takara Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Dalian China) in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol. U6 snRNA and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were used as internal controls for miR-655 and PAX6, respectively. The primers were designed as follows: miR-655, 5′-TCCGAATAATACATGGTTAA-3′ (forward) and 5′-GTGCAGGGTCCGAGGT-3′ (reverse); U6, 5′-TCCGATCGTGAAGCGTTC-3′ (forward) and 5′-GTGCAGGGTCCGAGGT-3′ (reverse); PAX6, 5′-AGACACAGCCCTCACAAAC-3′ (forward) and 5′-ATCATAACTCCGCCCATTC-3′ (reverse); and GAPDH, 5′-CGGAGTCAACGGATTTGGTCGTAT-3′ (forward) and 5′-AGCCTTCTCCATGGTGGTGAAGAC-3′ (reverse). All experiments were performed in triplicate. Data were analysed using the 2−ΔΔCt method (29).

3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay

Cell proliferation was determined using the MTT (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck Millipore, Darmstadt, Germany) assay. Transfected cells were collected at 24 h after transfection, plated into a 96-well plate at a density of 3×103 cells per well and then cultured at 37°C with 5% CO2 for 0, 24, 48 or 72 h. MTT assay was performed every 24 h. In brief, 20 µl of MTT solution (5 mg/ml) was added into each well and incubated at 37°C in 5% CO2 for an additional 4 h. The supernatant was removed, and 150 µl of dimethyl sulfoxide (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck Millipore, Darmstadt, Germany) was added to each well. The absorbance was detected at 490 nm using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay reader (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Hercules, CA, USA).

Transwell invasion assay

Transwell insert chambers (pore size, 8 µm) coated with Matrigel (both from BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) were applied to detect the invasion ability of the cells in accordance with the manufacturer's protocol. In brief, transfected cells were harvested at 48 h post-transfection and suspended in FBS-free DMEM. The cell (5×104) were seeded into the upper chamber, whereas the lower chamber was filled with DMEM containing 10% FBS. After culturing for 24 h, the cells remaining on the upper chamber were removed using a cotton swab. The cells on the lower membrane were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and stained with 0.1% crystal violet. After washing thrice with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), the invasive cells were photographed and counted under an inverted microscope (IX83; Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) using five randomly selected visual fields.

Flow cytometric analysis

At 48 h post-transfection, the cells were trypsinised and washed with ice-cold PBS. The cell apoptosis rate was examined using an Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) apoptosis detection kit (Nanjing KeyGen Biotech Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Transfected cells were suspended in 500 µl of binding buffer and further incubated with 5 µl of FITC-Annexin V and 5 µl of propidium iodide in the dark at room temperature for 15 min. Finally, cell apoptosis was analysed immediately following staining using a flow cytometry kit (BD Biosciences). Three independent experiments were performed in triplicate.

Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase report assay

Bioinformatic analysis was performed to predict the potential targets of miR-655 using microRNA.org (http://www.microrna.org/microrna/) and TargetScan (http://www.targetscan.org/). PAX6 was predicted as a candidate target of miR-655. Luciferase plasmids, psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR wild-type (Wt) and psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR mutant (Mut), were synthesised by Shanghai GenePharma Co., Ltd. Cells were plated into 24-well plates at a density of 4×104 cells/well and then transfected with miR-655 mimics or miR-NC, together with psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR Wt or psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR Mut using Lipofectamine 2000. Transfected cells were cultured at 37°C with 5% CO2 for 48 h, and luciferase activities were determined using the Dual-Luciferase® reporter assay system (Promega Corporation, Madison, WI, USA) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Firefly luciferase activity was normalised to Renilla luciferase activity.

Western blot analysis

The total protein was extracted from tissues or cells using radioimmunoprecipitation assay lysis buffer (Sigma-Aldrich; Merck Millipore, Darmstadt, Germany). The concentration of total protein was detected using the Pierce bicinchoninic acid assay (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA). The same amount of protein was separated with 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and transferred onto polyvinylidene fluoride membranes (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). The membranes were blocked with 5% skimmed dry milk in Tris-buffered saline-Tween (TBST) at room temperature for 1 h and then incubated with primary antibodies overnight at 4°C using mouse anti-human monoclonal PAX6 (sc-53108; 1:1,000 dilution; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA), mouse anti-human monoclonal p-ERK (sc-81492; 1:1,000 dilution; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), mouse anti-human monoclonal ERK (sc-514302; 1:1,000 dilution; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), rabbit anti-human monoclonal p-p38 MAPK (EPR16587; 1:500 dilution; Abcam, Cambridge, UK, mouse anti-human monoclonal p38 MAPK (ab31828; 1:500 dilution; Abcam, Cambridge, UK), and mouse anti-human monoclonal GAPDH antibody (sc-47724; 1:1,000 dilution; Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Subsequently, the membranes were washed thrice with TBST and probed with corresponding horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibodies (sc-2004 and sc-2005; 1:5,000 dilution; Santa Cruz Biotechnology) at room temperature for 2 h. The protein bands were visualised with an electrochemiluminescence advanced western blot detection kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). The density of protein bands was quantified using ImageJ 1.49 (National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA). GAPDH was used as an internal control.

Statistical analysis

All data are presented as mean ± standard errors. Statistical significance between groups was evaluated by Student's t-tests or one-way ANOVA, followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test. SPSS 17.0 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis. Spearman's correlation analysis was utilised to determine the association between miR-655 and PAX6 mRNA expression in RB tissues. Statistical significance was considered at P<0.05.

Results

miR-655 is downregulated in RB tissues and cell lines

To explore the potential roles of miR-655 in RB, miR-655 expression in 23 RB tissues and 8 normal retina tissues was detected using RT-qPCR. The results showed that miR-655 was significantly downregulated in RB tissues compared with that in normal retina tissues (Fig. 1A, P<0.05). Then, RT-qPCR analysis was performed to measure the relative expression of miR-655 in RB cell lines (Y79, SO-RB50 and WERI-RB-1). As shown in Fig. 1B, the expression level of miR-655 was lower in all three RB cell lines than that noted in the normal retina tissues (P<0.05). These results suggest that miR-655 may contribute to RB formation and progression.

Upregulation of miR-655 inhibits cell proliferation, invasion and increases apoptosis of RB cells

Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells expressing a relatively decreased miR-655 expression level were chosen for further experiments and transfected with miR-655 mimics or miR-NC to examine the functions of miR-655 in RB. Transfection efficiency was evaluated by RT-qPCR. As shown in Fig. 2A, miR-655 was markedly upregulated in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells after transfection with miR-655 mimics (P<0.05).

The MTT assay was adopted to investigate the effect of miR-655 overexpression on RB cell proliferation in vitro. The results revealed that upregulation of miR-655 suppressed the proliferation of Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells (Fig. 2B, P<0.05). To investigate the role of miR-655 in RB cell invasion ability, Transwell invasion assays were conducted in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells following transfection with miR-655 mimics or miR-NC. Our results showed that the invasive capabilities were significantly inhibited in the miR-655 mimic-transfected Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells compared with the capacity in the cells transfected with miR-NC (Fig. 2C, P<0.05). Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis was utilised to detect the cell apoptosis rate in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells transfected with miR-655 mimics or miR-NC. As shown in Fig. 2D, ectopic expression of miR-655 promoted the apoptosis of Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells (P<0.05). These results suggest that miR-655 plays a tumour-suppressive role in RB progression.

PAX6 is a direct target of miR-655 in RB

To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the tumour-suppressing roles of miR-655 in RB, bioinformatic analysis was carried out to predict the potential targets of miR-655. Among these candidates, PAX6 was selected for further confirmation as it is highly expressed in RB and serves important roles in RB occurrence and development (3032). As illustrated in Fig. 3A, the 3′-UTR of PAX6 contains two predicted binding sites for miR-655. To test this hypothesis, luciferase reporter assays were performed in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells cotransfected with miR-655 mimics or miR-NC and a luciferase plasmid harboring wild-type (1 and 2) or mutant type (1 and 2) seed region in the 3′-UTR of PAX6. As presented in Fig. 3B and C, enforced expression of miR-655 was able to obviously reduce the luciferase activities of psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR Wt 1 and 2 in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells (P<0.05), although not psiCHECK2-PAX6-3′-UTR Mut 1 and 2, which suggested that miR-655 directly interacted with the two target regions in the 3-UTR of PAX6. The regulatory effect of miR-655 on PAX6 expression was further evaluated using RT-qPCR and western blot analysis. The results indicated that PAX6 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels was significantly downregulated in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells after transfection with miR-655 mimics compared with these levels in the miR-NC group (Fig. 3D and E, P<0.05). Overall, these findings suggest that PAX6 is a direct target of miR-655 in RB.

PAX6 is upregulated in RB tissues and inversely correlated with miR-655 expression

To further assess the association between miR-655 and PAX6 in RB, we determined PAX6 expression in RB tissues and normal retina tissues. The data of the RT-qPCR analysis showed that the mRNA expression of PAX6 in RB tissues was higher than that in normal retina tissues (Fig. 4A, P<0.05). Additionally, western blot analysis revealed that PAX6 protein was upregulated in RB tissues compared with that in normal retina tissues (Fig. 4B). Furthermore, Spearman's correlation analysis revealed a negative correlation between miR-655 and PAX6 mRNA in RB tissues (Fig. 4C; r=−0.6566, P<0.001).

Downregulation of PAX6 exhibits effects similar to those observed following miR-655 overexpression in RB cells

PAX6 was validated as a direct target of miR-655 in RB. Thus, we hypothesised that the tumour-suppressing effects of miR-655 overexpression on RB cells are exerted by PAX6 knockdown. To confirm this hypothesis, PAX6 siRNA was utilised to knock down PAX6 expression in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells. Successful silencing was confirmed by western blot analysis (Fig. 5A, P<0.05). Subsequent functional assays revealed that PAX6 knockdown attenuated the proliferation (Fig. 5B, P<0.05) and invasion (Fig. 5C, P<0.05) while increased the apoptosis (Fig. 5D, P<0.05) of Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells, which was similar to the effects of miR-655 overexpression. These data suggest that the tumour-suppressing roles of miR-655 on RB cells depend, at least in part, on its direct target PAX6.

Restoration of PAX6 expression counteracts the miR-655-mediated tumour-suppressing effects on RB cells

To determine whether the role of miR-655 in RB is mediated by PAX6, we performed a rescue experiment involving transfection of miR-655 mimics in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells together with pcDNA3.1 or pcDNA3.1-PAX6. After transfection, western blot analysis confirmed that PAX6 protein expression was recovered in miR-655 mimic-transfected Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells after cotransfection with pcDNA3.1-PAX6 (Fig. 6A, P<0.05). In addition, MTT assay, Transwell invasion assay and flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that restored PAX6 expression abolished the effects of miR-655 overexpression in regards to proliferation (Fig. 6B, P<0.05), invasion (Fig. 6C, P<0.05) and apoptosis (Fig. 6D, P<0.05) in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells. Overall, these results make it obvious that miR-655 exerted its suppressive effects in RB at least by PAX6 regulation.

miR-655 suppresses the activation of the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways in RB cells

PAX6 is involved in the regulation of the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways (33,34). Thus, we determined the expression levels of p-ERK, ERK, p-p38 MAPK and p38 MAPK in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells cotransfected with miR-655 mimics and pcDNA3.1 or pcDNA3.1-PAX6. Western blot analysis showed that the expression levels of p-ERK and p-p38 MAPK in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells were downregulated by miR-655 overexpression (Fig. 7, P<0.05), without a change in total ERK and p38 MAPK protein expression. In addition, the expression levels of p-ERK and p-p38 MAPK were recovered in Y79 and WERI-RB-1 cells after cotransfection with pcDNA3.1-PAX6. Overall, miR-655 suppresses the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways in RB by PAX6 regulation.

Discussion

Numerous studies have indicated that miRNAs regulate signalling molecules by acting as oncogenes or tumour-suppressor genes in RB (3537). Therefore, investigation of the expression pattern, biological roles and associated mechanisms of cancer-related miRNAs in RB may provide novel therapeutic targets for patients with this disease. In the present study, miR-655 was obviously downregulated in RB tissues and cell lines. Ectopic expression of miR-655 inhibited the proliferation and invasion while induced the apoptosis of RB cells in vitro. Mechanistic analysis suggested that PAX6 is a direct target gene of miR-655 in RB. Additionally, PAX6 was upregulated in RB tissues and inversely correlated with miR-655 expression. PAX6 knockdown recapitulated effects similar to those of miR-655 overexpression on RB cells. Restoration of PAX6 expression attenuated the miR-655-mediated tumour-suppressing effects on RB cells. Furthermore, miR-655 reduced the activation of the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways in RB cell lines. These results demonstrate that miR-655 serves as a tumour suppressor in RB by directly targeting PAX6 and indirectly regulating the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways.

miR-655 is abnormally expressed in various human cancers. For example, miR-655 is downregulated in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues and cell lines (24,25). Decreased miR-655 expression significantly correlates with the occurrence of lymph node metastases in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (25). Kaplan-Meier analysis suggested that oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with low miR-655 expression show worse progression-free survival than those patients with high miR-655 expression (24). miR-655 is lowly expressed in both hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and cell lines. Low miR-655 expression is associated with tumour size, portal vein tumour thrombosis status, TNM stage, positive microvascular invasion and lymph node metastasis (26,38). Multivariate analysis identified miR-655 as an independent risk factor for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (38). miR-655 is also downregulated in triple-negative breast cancer, and its expression correlates with the molecular-based classification and lymph node metastasis of breast cancer patients (27). These findings suggest that miR-655 could be developed as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for these types of human cancer.

Deregulated miR-655 expression is involved in the initiation and progression of multiple types of cancer. For instance, enforced miR-655 expression inhibits the proliferation and invasion of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (24,25). Wu et al (26) found that miR-655 upregulation suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro. Lv et al (27) revealed that miR-655 overexpression decreased the migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of breast cancer cells. Liang et al (28) showed that restoration of miR-655 expression suppressed the growth and metastasis while promoted the apoptosis of thyroid cancer cells. Harazono et al (39) revealed that restoration of miR-655 expression attenuated the migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition of mesenchymal-like cancer cells. These findings suggest that miR-655 should be investigated as a novel and effective therapeutic target for treating specific types of cancer.

Multiple target genes of miR-655 have been validated, including PTTG1 (25) in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, ADAM10 (26) in hepatocellular carcinoma, PRRX1 (27) in breast cancer and PTGG1 (28) in thyroid cancer. PAX6, a member of the PAX family, is a transcription factor that plays important roles in the development of the eyes, pancreas and central nervous system (40). PAX6 is overexpressed in several types of human cancer, such as pancreatic (41), colorectal (34), breast (42) and non-small cell lung cancers (43). PAX6 is upregulated and contributes to the occurrence and development of RB through regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis (30,32,44). In the present study, we found that miR-655 targeted PAX6 to inhibit the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways in RB. Inhibition of the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways is considered a key signal transduction pathway for preventing tumourigenesis and tumour development (45,46). In consideration of the important roles of PAX6 in RB, the miR-655/PAX6 axis may constitute a novel promising therapeutic opportunity in treating this aggressive cancer.

In conclusion, miR-655 is downregulated in RB tissues and cell lines. miR-655 overexpression inhibits the proliferation and invasion while promotes the apoptosis of RB cells by directly targeting PAX6 and indirectly regulating the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways. The results of this study suggest that the miR-655/PAX6 interaction is a potential therapeutic target for treating patients with RB.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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April-2018
Volume 39 Issue 4

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Spandidos Publications style
Zhang M, Li Q, Pan Y, Wang H, Liu G and Yin H: MicroRNA-655 attenuates the malignant biological behaviours of retinoblastoma cells by directly targeting PAX6 and suppressing the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways Retraction in /10.3892/or.2022.8385. Oncol Rep 39: 2040-2050, 2018
APA
Zhang, M., Li, Q., Pan, Y., Wang, H., Liu, G., & Yin, H. (2018). MicroRNA-655 attenuates the malignant biological behaviours of retinoblastoma cells by directly targeting PAX6 and suppressing the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways Retraction in /10.3892/or.2022.8385. Oncology Reports, 39, 2040-2050. https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6264
MLA
Zhang, M., Li, Q., Pan, Y., Wang, H., Liu, G., Yin, H."MicroRNA-655 attenuates the malignant biological behaviours of retinoblastoma cells by directly targeting PAX6 and suppressing the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways Retraction in /10.3892/or.2022.8385". Oncology Reports 39.4 (2018): 2040-2050.
Chicago
Zhang, M., Li, Q., Pan, Y., Wang, H., Liu, G., Yin, H."MicroRNA-655 attenuates the malignant biological behaviours of retinoblastoma cells by directly targeting PAX6 and suppressing the ERK and p38 MAPK signalling pathways Retraction in /10.3892/or.2022.8385". Oncology Reports 39, no. 4 (2018): 2040-2050. https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2018.6264