miR-512-5p induces apoptosis and inhibits glycolysis by targeting p21 in non-small cell lung cancer cells

MicroRNAs are a family of small non-coding RNAs that constitute a prevalent gene regulation. In this study, we showed the expression of miR-512-5p is downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient tumor samples compared to its paired normal lung tissues. Moreover, expression of miR-512-5p was increased by retinoic acid treatment. Overexpression of miR-512-5p induced apoptosis of NSCLC cell lines A549 and H1299, and miR-512-5p inhibitor reversed this effect in H1299 cells stably expressing miR-512. miR-512-5p inhibited glycolysis and migration in NSCLC cells, but shows no effect on cell proliferation. We identified p21 as a target gene of miR-512-5p. Overexpression of miR-512-5p led to the decrease of p21 protein and mRNA level. Knockdown of p21 resulted in similar effects on apoptosis and glycolysis as that observed of miR-512-5p overexpression, as well as rescued the effect of miR-512-5p inhibitor on cell apoptosis in H1299 cells stably expressing miR-512. In conclusion, our present study revealed miR-512-5p was able to target p21 to induce apoptosis and inhibit glycolysis in A549 and H1299 cell lines.