mir-143 inhibits migration of sw-480 colorectal cancer cells via downregulation of mmp-9 and rock

Background and aim: colorectal cancer (crc) is considered as the third common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. treatment failure is the major reason for the low survival rates of crc patients. therefore, the identification of molecular mechanisms underlying crc tumorigenesis is essential for the improvement of therapeutic strategies. micrornas (mirnas), a class of regulatory small non-coding rnas are dysregulated in human cancers and involved in its development. mir‑143, as a tumor suppressor gene, was also shown to play essential roles in cancer progression including migration. given that, in this study, we investigated the effect of mir-143 replacement on the migration of sw-480 human colorectal cancer cells.methods: sw-480 cells purchased from national cell bank of iran were cultivated in complete rpmi-1640 medium. as cell monolayers reached 70-80% confluence, they were transfected with mir-143 mimics using electroporation. subsequently, wound healing assay was used to measure the migratory ability of transfected cells compared to the control. moreover, using quantitative real-time pcr (qrt-pcr), the expression levels of mir-143, mmp-9, and rock were investigated in treatment groups.results: the obtained results showed that mir-143 expression levels were upregulated after transfection in sw-480 cells. wound healing assay illustrated that mir-143 overexpression significantly reduced ht-29 cell migration. furthermore, qrt-pcr results also demonstrated that mir-143 replacement downregulated mmp-9 and rock mrna expression levels.conclusion: taken together, our results implied that mir-143 could inhibit sw-480 cell migration by modulating the expression of metastasis-related genes, confirming the therapeutic value of this mirna in crc.