MiR-548c impairs migration and invasion of endometrial and ovarian cancer cells via downregulation of Twist

Background: micrornas (mirnas) are a class of small non-coding rnas,which post-transcriptionally repress the expression of genes involved in cancer initiation and progression. although some mirnas that target many signaling pathways (also called universe mirnas) are supposed to play a global role in diverse human tumors,their regulatory functions in gynecological cancers remain largely unknown. we investigated the biological role and underlying mechanism of mir-548c (one universe mirna) in endometrial and ovarian cancer. methods: the effects of mir-548c overexpression on cell proliferation,migration and invasion were studied in endometrial and ovarian cancer cells. twist1 (twist) was identified as a direct mir-548c target by western blot analysis and luciferase activity assay. the expression of mir-548c and twist were examined by qrt-pcr in endometrial and ovarian cancer tissues. results: here,we report that mir-548c is down-regulated in endometrial and ovarian cancer tissues when compared to normal tissues,and our meta-analysis reveal that decreased mir-548c expression correlates with poor prognosis in endometrial cancer patients. we show that in endometrial and ovarian cancer cells,ectopic expression of mir-548c significantly inhibits whereas knockdown of mir-548c dramatically induces cancer cell proliferation,migration and invasion. by using luciferase reporter assay,we demonstrate that twist,a known oncogene in endometrial and ovarian cancers,is a direct target of mir-548c. furthermore,the expression of twist partially abrogates the tumor suppressive effects of mir-548c on cell migration and invasion. conclusion: these findings suggest that mir-548c directly downregulates twist,and provide a novel mechanism for twist upregulation in both endometrial and ovarian cancers. the use of mir-548c may hold therapeutic potential for the treatment of twist-overexpressing tumors. © 2016 sun et al.