miR-135b Promotes Cancer Progression by Targeting Transforming Growth Factor Beta Receptor II (TGFBR2) in Colorectal Cancer

The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling pathway is a tumor-suppressor pathway that is commonly inactivated in colorectal cancer (CRC). The inactivation of TGFBR2 is the most common genetic event affecting the TGF-β signaling pathway. However, the mechanism by which cancer cells downregulate TGFBR2 is unclear. In this study, we found that the TGFBR2 protein levels were consistently upregulated in CRC tissues, whereas its mRNA levels varied in these tissues, suggesting that a post-transcriptional mechanism is involved in the regulation of TGFBR2. Because microRNAs (miRNAs) are powerful post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, we performed bioinformatic analyses to search for miRNAs that potentially target TGFBR2. We identified the specific targeting site of miR-135b in the 3’-untranslated region (3’-UTR) of TGFBR2. We further identified an inverse correlation between the levels of miR-135b and TGFBR2 protein, but not mRNA, in CRC tissue samples. By overexpressing or silencing miR-135b in CRC cells, we experimentally validated that miR-135b directly binds to the 3’-UTR of the TGFBR2 transcript and regulates TGFBR2 expression. Furthermore, the biological consequences of the targeting of TGFBR2 by miR-135b were examined using in vitro cell proliferation and apoptosis assays. We demonstrated that miR-135b exerted a tumor-promoting effect by inducing the proliferation and inhibiting the apoptosis of CRC cells via the negative regulation of TGFBR2 expression. Taken together, our findings provide the first evidence supporting the role of miR-135b as an oncogene in CRC via the inhibition of TGFBR2 translation.