miR-451a-5p/miR-34a-5p restoration could suppress human breast cancer cell proliferation and migration through Wnt/β- catenin and ERK/P-ERK signaling pathways

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs of 21–25 nucleotides in length and display an essential role in regulating cancer initiation, development, and progression. In this study, the impacts of microRNA-451a-5p and miR-34a-5p (tumor suppressors), individually and combined, transfections were conducted on the apoptosis, proliferation, and migration of breast cancer cells in vitro. For carrying out this research, malignant breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) were transfected with miR-451a-5p and miR-34a-5p mimics. Then, apoptotic rate, proliferation, and migration of cancer cells were assessed by MTT (cell viability), flow cytometry (apoptosis and cell cycle arrest), q-RT-PCR (expression levels of caspase-3, caspase-8, MMP9, ROCK, vimentin, c-Myc genes), wound healing, and western blot (protein expression of β- catenin, ERK, and P-ERK) assays. Our findings indicated that miR-34a-5p and miR-451a-5p could additionally induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in the sub-G1-phase, repress the proliferation and migration in the breast cancer cells, and could also decrease β- catenin, ERK/P-ERK protein expressions. Taken to gather, miR-451a and miR-34a have a considerable role in breast cancer cell proliferation and migration ability via Wnt/β-catenin and ERK/P-ERK signaling pathways. Therefore, the simultaneous restoration of the presented tumor suppressor miRNAs may be proposed as a valuable and potential therapeutic strategy in breast cancer treatment. However, further study should be meaningful.