miR-455-5p promotes cell growth and invasion by targeting SOCO3 in non-small cell lung cancer

// Junfeng Wang 1 , Yanbo Wang 1 , Dawei Sun 1 , Jianlong Bu 1 , Fenghai Ren 1 , Benkun Liu 1 , Shibo Zhang 1 , Zigeng Xu 1 , Sainan Pang 1 and Shidong Xu 1 1 The Department of Thoracic Surgery, Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital, Harbin 150081, China Correspondence to: Shidong Xu, email: xusd163@163.com Keywords: miR-455-5p; SOCO3; invasion; non-small cell lung cancers Received: January 23, 2017     Accepted: August 29, 2017     Published: November 20, 2017 ABSTRACT Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer. miR-455-5p has increased expression and the ability to promote tumorigenesis in certain cancers. However, the role of miR-455-5p in NSCLC has not been sufficiently investigated. SOCS3 (suppressor of cytokine signaling 3), an important tumor suppressor, is often aberrantly inactivated in various tumors, but it is currently unclear whether SOCO3 is a target of miR-455-5p. In the present study, we investigated the role of miR-455-5p in NSCLC. We found that the expression of miR-455-5p was up-regulated in NSCLC tumor tissues compared to corresponding noncancerous tissues, and its expression was correlated with metastasis and tumor node metastasis in NSCLC tissue. We then showed that miR-455-5p promoted migration, invasion and proliferation in NSCLC cell lines. Additionally, we also found that SOCS3 was the direct target gene of miR-455-5p. Consistently, the expression of SOCS3 was negatively correlated with the expression of miR-455-5p in NSCLC tissues. We further show that aberrant miR-455-5p expression is partially controlled by activated ERK signaling in NSCLC. Therefore, miR-455-5p could enhance the growth and metastasis of NSCLC by inhibiting SOCS3, thus providing a potential molecular therapeutic target for the treatment of NSCLC patients.