The regulation and function of microRNA-377/RASSF8 signaling axis in gastric cancer

Gastric cancer is a major cause of cancer-associated mortality worldwide. The aberrant expression of microRNA (miRNA) is involved in tumorigenesis. Ras proteins transfer information from the extracellular environment to internal cellular compartments and are essential in numerous signal transduction pathways. To investigate the regulation, function and clinical significance of the miRNA377/Ras association domain family (RASSF) 8 signaling axis in gastric cancer, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemistry, cell counting kit-8, western blotting, and Transwell assays were used. The results revealed that expression of RASSF8 was significantly upregulated in normal gastric tissues compared with gastric cancer, which was further confirmed by immunohistochemical analysis, and its expression level was increased in normal gastric cells compared with gastric cancer cell lines. However, the expression of miR-377 was significantly upregulated in gastric cancer compared with normal gastric tissues. In addition, RASSF8 overexpression in BGC-823 gastric cancer cells significantly inhibited the proliferation, apoptosis and invasive abilities of cells. Whereas miR-377 attenuated these effects due to downregulated RASSF8 expression by directly targeting its 3′-untranslated region. Furthermore, in the current study, miR-377 was not able to reverse the effects of RASSF8 overexpression on gastric cancer cells. Collectively, the RASSF8 gene may represent a novel molecular target involved in gastric cancer development and may be useful in targeted therapy of patients with gastric cancer.