MicroRNA‑19b promotes the migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cells by inhibiting the PTEN/AKT signaling pathway

Abstract

Local and systemic metastasis is the main reason for the poor survival rate of patients with ovarian cancer (OC). MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are short non‑coding RNAs that serve critical roles in the initiation and progression of OC. The present study demonstrated that expression of miR‑19b was significantly increased in OC tissues and cell lines. Analysis of clinicopathological features revealed that the increased expression of miR‑19b was associated with advanced International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and lymphatic metastasis of OC patients. Loss‑of‑function experiments demonstrated that the silencing of miR‑19b reduced the migration and invasion of OVCAR‑3 cells; contrarily, the overexpression of miR‑19b facilitated the migration and invasion of CAOV‑3 cells. Furthermore, miR‑19b regulated the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) and the activity of the PTEN/RAC serine/threonine‑protein kinase pathway in vitro. Notably, the results of dual‑luciferase reporter assays indicated that PTEN was a direct downstream target of miR‑19b in OC. Taken together, the results of the current study demonstrated that miR‑19b serves an oncogenic role in the progression of OC, and could potentially act as a biomarker and therapeutic target for OC patients.