MiR-361-3p regulates ERK1/2-induced EMT via DUSP2 mRNA degradation in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Metastasis remains one of the most intractable challenges in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) biology, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is essential to the epithelium-originated solid tumor metastasis cascade. Emerging evidence demonstrates that aberrant miRNA expression is involved in pancreatic cancer progression. We found that miR-361-3p was associated with an advanced stage of PDAC and poor prognosis. Hence, the effect of miR-361-3p on metastasis of PDAC cells was evaluated using Transwell assay and wound healing assay in vitro as well as orthotopic and liver metastasis pancreatic cancer models in vivo. Overexpression of miR-361-3p promoted pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro, and miR-361-3p-elevated PDAC cells were prone to generating metastatic nodules in vivo. However, miR-361-3p showed no significant effect on the proliferation of PDAC cells in vivo or in vitro. Further study demonstrated that miR-361-3p could enhance EMT and ERK pathway activation, and ERK inhibitor could attenuate miR-361-3p-induced EMT. Luciferase assays, qPCR, and western blot and Ago2 co-immunoprecipitation were performed to identify the direct target of miR-361-3p. Mechanistic investigations identified DUSP2 as a direct target of miR-361-3p, and DUSP2 was revealed to be involved in miR-361-3p-induced EMT by directly leading to the inactivation of the ERK pathway. Moreover, we found that miR-361-3p-induced EMT was dependent on Ago2, the core component of RNA-induced silencing complex, while enforced expression of Ago2 enhanced the miR-361-3p-induced effect by promoting interference efficacy and specificity rather than regulating miR-361-3p stability and biogenesis. Thus, this study revealed that miR-361-3p functions as an oncomiR for promoting metastasis and identified the miR-361-3p/DUSP2/ERK axis as a novel EMT axis dependent on Ago2 in PDAC.