MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of noncoding RNAs that are approximately 22-nucleotides in length. MicroRNAs have been shown to play important roles in cell differentiation and in cancer. Recently, reports have shown that miR-372 is tumorigenetic in human reproductive system cancers. However, we provide evidence that miR-372 acts as a tumor suppressor gene in cervical carcinoma. MiR-372 was found down-regulated in cervical carcinoma tissues compared to adjacent normal cervical tissues. Growth curve and FACS assays indicated that ectopic expression of miR-372 suppressed cell growth and induced arrest in the S/G2 phases of cell cycle in HeLa cells. We used bioinformatic predictions to determine that CDK2 and cyclin A1 were possible targets of miR-372 and confirmed this prediction using a fluorescent reporter assay. Taken together, these findings indicate that an anti-oncogenic role of miR-372 may through control of cell growth and cell cycle progression by down-regulating the cell cycle genes, CDK2 and cyclin A1.

PMID: 21646351 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] Source: National Library of Medicine; Free full text