MicroRNA-130b promotes lung cancer progression via PPARγ/VEGF-A/BCL-2-mediated suppression of apoptosis

Background: the prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (nsclc) is poor yet mechanistic understanding and therapeutic options remain limited. we investigated the biological and clinical significance of microrna-130b and its relationship with apoptosis in nsclc. methods: the level of microrna-130b in relationship with the expression of pparγ,vegf-a,bcl-2 and apoptosis were analyzed in 91 lung cancer patient samples using immunohistochemistry and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dutp nick end labeling (tunel) assay on tissue microarrays. gain and loss-of-function studies were performed to investigate the effects of microrna-130b,peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (pparγ) or vascular endothelial growth factor-a (vegf-a) on biological functions of lung cancer cells using in vitro and in vivo approaches. results: microrna-130b up-regulation conferred unfavorable prognosis of lung cancer patients. notably,microrna-130b targeted pparγ and inhibiting microrna-130b markedly repressed proliferation,invasion and metastasis of lung cancer cells,leading to increased apoptosis. microrna-130b-dependent biologic effects were due to suppression of pparγ that in turn activated bcl-2,the key mediator of anti-apoptosis. administration of microrna-130b mimic to mouse xenografts promoted tumor growth. in vitro and in vivo,mir-130b enrichment associated with down-regulation of pparγ,up-regulation of vegf-a and bcl-2,and decreased apoptosis. conclusions: the present study demonstrates that microrna-130b promotes lung cancer progression via pparγ/vegf-a/bcl-2-mediated suppression of apoptosis. targeting microrna-130b might have remarkable therapeutic potential for lung cancer therapy. © 2016 the author(s).