Identification of microRNA hsa-miR-30c-5p as an inhibitory factor in the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma and investigation of its regulatory network via comprehensive analysis.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver cancer with high morbidity and mortality. An increasing number of abnormal gene expressions were identified to be associated with the progression of HCC. Previous studies showed that the hsa-miR-30c-5p (miR-30c), one of the miR-30 family members, might play a role in suppressing tumor progression in a variety of tumors. The present study aims to examine miR-30c effects in the development of HCC. The role of miR-30c in HCC was comprehensively investigated by using bioinformatics and experiments in vitro. The multiple databases were combined to predict and screen the target genes and upstream lncRNAs of miR-30c, and then constructed a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network with miR-30c as the central miRNA. The miR-30c-related ceRNA regulatory network was also initially validated in vitro. The results showed that miR-30c over-expression could inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion, induce apoptosis, and increase G0/G1 phase ratio of HCC cells. Three miR-30c upstream lncRNAs and 12 miR-30c target genes were expressed in HCC cells with increased expression and poor prognosis, and a miR-30C-related ceRNA regulatory network was constructed. This study verified miR-30c as an inhibitory factor in the progression of HCC and performed analyses on the miR-30c regulatory network, which might provide potential target information for HCC prognoses and therapies. However, further experiments in vivo and studies including clinical trials will be conducted to validate our results.