Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Biological Sciences (Genetics and Molecular Biology), Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Int J Oncol, 2017 Dec;51(6):1757-1764.
PMID: 29075783 DOI: 10.3892/ijo.2017.4174

Abstract

Lung cancer remains a major health problem with a low 5-year survival rate of patients. Recent studies have shown that dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) are prevalent in lung cancer and these aberrations play a significant role in the progression of tumour progression. In the present study, bioinformatics analyses was employed to predict potential miR-608 targets, which are associated with signaling pathways involved in cancer. Luciferase reporter assay identified AKT2 as a novel target of miR-608, and suppression of its protein levels was validated through western blot analysis. Zebrafish embryos were microinjected with cells transfected with miR-608 to elucidate the role of miR-608 in vivo, and immunostained with antibodies to detect activated caspase-3. We present the first evidence that miR-608 behaves as a tumour suppressor in A549 and SK-LU-1 cells through the regulation of AKT2, suggesting that selective targeting of AKT2 via miR-608 may be developed as a potential therapeutic strategy for miRNA-based non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) therapy.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.