Upregulation of miRNA-10a-5p promotes tumor progression in cervical cancer by suppressing UBE2I signaling

Abstract

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common malignant neoplasm in gynecology. There is increasing evidence to suggest that microRNAs (miRNAs) act as crucial regulators of CC. However, whether miR-10a-5p plays a role in CC is under investigation. The aim of this stuy was to assess the miR-10a-5p expression pattern in the development of CC and investigate its downstream target. MiR-10a-5p inhibition decreased CC cell proliferation and impaired CC cell invasion and migration but enhanced apoptosis. UBE2I was a direct target of miR-10a-5p. QRT-PCR results showed a down-regulation of UBE2I in CC cells, opposing miR-10a-5p. Besides, overexpression of miR-10a-5p down-regulated UBE2I. Functional rescue experiments further indicated the miR-10a-5p-UBE2I axis was linked to CC cell growth, apoptosis and metastasis. MiR-10a-5p upregulation promotes cervical cancer development by inhibiting UBE2I. These results also predict that miR-10a-5p may be a potential target for the clinical treatment of CC.

IMPACT STATEMENT

• What is already known on this subject? As a widely researched cancer-related miRNA, the overexpression of miR-10a-5p has been verified in various cancers. It has been described in a meta-analysis report that there were 42 miRNAs up-regulated and 21 miRNAs down-regulated in different stages of cervical cancer tissue versus healthy tissue.

• What do the results of this study add? We verified that miR-10a-5p initiates and promotes tumor cell development by decreasing UBE2I abundance. This miR-10a-5p-mediated post-transcriptional regulation of UBE2I is involved in the tumorigenesis, invasion and migration of human cervical cancer.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? These findings provide mechanistic insights into how miR-10a-5p regulates cervical cancer hyper-proliferation and metastasis, as well as a new target for clinical treatment. Nevertheless, whether miR-10a-5p/UBE2I axis can be regulated by non-invasive methods need further exploration, which will be the focus of our future research.

Keywords:

• Cervical cancer
• metastasis
• microRNA (miRNA)
• epigenetic regulation
• UBE2I

Ethical approval

This study is in line with the Improving the Quality and Transparency of Health Research (Equator) Network guidelines. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Nantong University (Y2021040), and all patients were informed of and signed the informed consent.

Author contributions

YF conceived and designed the study. YL and DL conducted most of the experiments. XF analyzed the data. YJ performed the literature search and data extraction. YG drafted the manuscript. LZ finalized the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Project of Nantong Health Committee (QA2021046).