Genistein Down-Regulates miR-223 Expression in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Title:Genistein Down-Regulates miR-223 Expression in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Volume: 14 Issue: 10

Author(s): Jia Ma, Long Cheng, Hao Liu, Jing Zhang, Ying Shi, Fanpeng Zeng, Lucio Miele, Fazlul H Sarkar, Jun Xia and Zhiwei Wang

Affiliation:

Keywords: miR-223, Fbw7, apoptosis, cell growth, genistein, pancreatic cancer.

Abstract: Although genistein has been shown to inhibit tumorigenesis in a variety of human cancers including pancreatic cancer (PC), the exact molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer effects has not yet been fully elucidated. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to regulate multiple aspects of tumor development and progression, indicating that targeting miRNAs could be a novel strategy to treat human cancers. In the current study, we investigated whether a natural compound genistein could down-regulate onco-miR-223, resulting in the inhibition of cell growth and invasion, and induction of apoptosis in PC cells. We found that genistein treatment significantly inhibited miR-223 expression and up-regulated Fbw7, one of the targets of miR-223. Moreover, down-regulation of miR-223 inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in PC cells. These findings suggest that genistein exerts its anti-tumor activity partly through downregulation of miR-223 in PC cells.

Cite this article as:

Ma Jia, Cheng Long, Liu Hao, Zhang Jing, Shi Ying, Zeng Fanpeng, Miele Lucio, Sarkar H Fazlul, Xia Jun and Wang Zhiwei, Genistein Down-Regulates miR-223 Expression in Pancreatic Cancer Cells, Current Drug Targets 2013; 14 (10) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/13894501113149990187