miR-23a-5p inhibits cell proliferation and invasion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma by suppressing ECM1 expression

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a genetic disease and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. However, the molecular mechanism underlying PDAC progression remains unclear. In this study, we first confirmed that ECM1 is significantly upregulated in PDAC tissues and that its high levels of expression are closely associated with an advanced histologic grade and a poor prognosis using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We then found that miR-23a-5p binds directly to the ECM1 3’-untranslated region (3’-UTR), thereby inhibiting ECM1 expression. Functional studies revealed that the induced expression of ECM1 promoted oncogenic abilities and reversed the suppressive effects induced by miR-23a-5p. Collectively, our findings indicate that ECM1 is a proto-oncogene and show that targeting the miR-23a-5p/ECM1 axis may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for PDAC.