MicroRNA-383-5p acts as a potential prognostic biomarker and an inhibitor of tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in breast cancer

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to serve as potential biomarkers in various cancer and play important roles in tumor progression.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance and functional role of miR-383-5p in breast cancer.

Methods: The expression levels of miR-383-5p in breast cancer tissues and cell lines were measured using quantitative real-time PCR analysis. Kaplan-Meier curve and Cox regression analysis were used to explore the prognostic significance of miR-383-5p in breast cancer. The CCK-8 assay was used to assess cell proliferation ability. Transwell assays were used to assess cell migration and invasion abilities of breast cancer cells.

Results: The expression of miR-383-5p was significantly downregulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines, compared with that in normal tissues and normal epithelial MCF-10A cells, respectively. The expression of miR-383-5p was associated with differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage. Patients with low miR-383-5p expression had shorter overall survival than those with high miR-383-5p expression. Overexpression of miR-383-5p significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while downregulation of miR-383-5p promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. LDHA was a direct target of miR-383-5p.

Conclusions: Taken together, miR-383-5p was downregulated in breast cancer tissues and cell lines, and overexpression of miR-383-5p inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in breast cancer cells by targeting LDHA. Based on our findings, miR-383-5p may be a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for breast cancer.