miR-129-5p inhibits prostate cancer proliferation via targeting ETV1

Ge Gao,1,* Dianhui Xiu,2,* Bin Yang,3 Daju Sun,1 Xin Wei,4 Youpeng Ding,4 Yanan Ma,4 Zhixin Wang4 1Department of Pathology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, P.R. China; 2Department of Radiology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, P.R. China; 3Department of Breast Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, P.R. China; 4Department of Urology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, P.R. China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases in males. Methods: RT-qPCR was used to detect miR-129-5p expression in tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues from patients with prostate cancer. The cell proliferation assay and colony forming assay were used to study the role of miR-129-5p in mediating prostate cancer cell growth. Bioinformatic analysis and dual luciferase assay were performed to predict and confirm ETV1 as a target gene of miR-129-5p. Results: We found that miR-129-5p levels were decreased significantly in human prostate cancer tissues compared with matched normal tissues from patients with prostate cancer. Overexpression of miR-129-5p suppressed prostate cancer cell growth while antagonist of miR-129-5p promoted cell proliferation in immortal prostate cell line RWPE-1. In addition, elevation of miR-129-5p decreased ETV1 expression in prostate cancer cells while downregulation of miR-129-5p increased ETV1 expression in RWPE-1. Mechanistically, ETV1 is confirmed a direct target of miR-129-5p in prostate cancer cells. Through repression of ETV1 expression, miR-129-5p could inactivate YAP signaling in prostate cancer cells. In addition, overexpression of ETV1 attenuated miR-129-5p induced cell proliferation in prostate cancer cells. Correlation analysis further revealed that there was a negative correlation between miR-129-5p levels and ETV1 mRNA levels in tumor tissues from patients with prostate cancer. Conclusion: Our results identified miR-129-5p as a tumor suppressor in prostate cancer via repression of ETV1. Keywords: microRNA, prostate cancer, ETV1, proliferation