Upregulation of Mirna-202 Leads To Apoptosis and Inhibits Migration and Invasion of Glioma Cell Lines Through Targeting the Rock1 Gene

Background and aim: it has been reported that the microrna-202 (mir-202) is involved in various types of human diseases such as cancers, but its role in pathogenesis of glioma is limited. our aim was to evaluate the role of mir‐202 in glioma and its effects on apoptosis, migration and invasion of glioma cell lines.methods: glioma and normal human astroglia (nha) cell lines were cultured, transfected with mimic, inhibitor and negative control (nc) of mir-202. total rna and protein were extracted. reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr) was conducted to evaluate the expression of mir‐ 202 and rock1. western blot was performed to detect the protein level of rock1. mtt and wound healing assay were performed to evaluate the effects of mir-202 on apoptosis and migration of human glioma cell lines, respectively.results: our results revealed that the mir-202 expression was significantly downregulated in glioma cell lines in comparison to nha cell line (p<0.05). on the other hand, the rock1 expression was significantly upregulated in glioma cell lines, compared to the nha cell line (p<0.05). furthermore, we showed a negative correlation between expression of rock1 and mir-202 (p=0.01, r=-0.426). we documented that upregulation of mir-202 could induce apoptosis and suppress the invasion and migration in glioma cell lines through downregulation of rock1conclusion: the mir-202 expression was low in glioma cell lines which makes the mir-202 as a tumour-suppressor mirna in glioma. the role of rock1 gene in glioma is known and served as an oncogene in glioma. therefore, targeting rock1 by mir-202 may increase the survival time, improve the disease outcome and could be considered as a potential therapeutic target for glioma patients.