MicroRNA-mediated regulation of Ubc9 expression in cancer cells.

Purpose: As an E2-conjugating enzyme for sumoylation, Ubc9 plays a critical role in sumoylation-mediated cellular pathways, ultimately impacting cell growth and cancer development. The aim of this study was to investigate the regulation of Ubc9 in cancer cells.

Experimental Design: Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to determine Ubc9 expression in paraffin-embedded tumor tissue and frozen specimens of the matched tumors from the same patient, respectively.

MicroRNA-21 targets tumor suppressor genes in invasion and metastasis.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of naturally occurring small non-coding RNAs that target protein-coding mRNAs at the post-transcriptional level. Our previous studies suggest that mir-21 functions as an oncogene and has a role in tumorigenesis, in part through regulation of the tumor suppressor gene tropomyosin 1 (TPM1). Given that TPM1 has been implicated in cell migration, in this study we further investigated the role of mir-21 in cell invasion and tumor metastasis.

MicroRNA-21 targets the tumor suppressor gene tropomyosin 1 (TPM1).

MicroRNAs are small noncoding RNA molecules that control expression of target genes. Our previous studies show that mir-21 is overexpressed in tumor tissues compared with the matched normal tissues. Moreover, suppression of mir-21 by antisense oligonucleotides inhibits tumor cell growth both in vitro and in vivo.