MicroRNA-524 promotes cell proliferation by down-regulating PTEN expression in osteosarcoma

BACKGROUND: Increasing numbers of studies have examined the correlation between specific miRNAs and tumours to enable their diagnosis and treatment. However, there are few reports regarding the concrete role and mechanism of miRNA in osteosarcoma. METHODS: The expression of miR-524 in osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines was examined by qRT-PCR. The cell proliferation was examined using CCK-8 in vitro. A series of bioinformatics and molecular biology techniques were adopted to investigate the regulatory relationship between miR-524 and target genes in osteosarcoma. RESULTS: The results showed that the miRNA with the most significant differential expression in osteosarcoma was miR-524, which was significantly up-regulated in both osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines. MiR-524 knockdown inhibited proliferation and promoted apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells, while overexpression of miR-524 induced their proliferation. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase assay confirmed that PTEN was a direct target gene of miR-524 and that miR-524 induced proliferation of osteosarcoma cells through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway via inhibition of PTEN. CONCLUSIONS: MiR-524 induces the proliferation of osteosarcoma cells through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway via inhibition of the target gene PTEN, which provides a theoretical basis for selecting a new therapeutic target for osteosarcoma. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-018-0612-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.