Downregulation of miR-542-3p promotes cancer metastasis through activating TGF-β/Smad signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

In the research, we found that miR-542-3p is decreased in HCC cell lines and tissues, and downregulation of miR-542-3p enhances, while upregulation suppresses HCC cell invasion ability. Further assay demonstrated that miR-542-3p can directly target TGF-β1 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) to influence TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway, and suppression of miR-542-3p can hyperactivate TGF-β/Smad pathway and further to promote Epithelial-Mesenchyme Transition (EMT) and induce poor prognosis. Lastly, the clinical correlation analysis illustrated that miR-542-3p is negatively related with the activity of TGF-β1. In summary, our results find that miR-542-3p takes an important role on HCC progression and provide more evidence of microRNAs (miRNAs) for cancer therapy.