MicroRNA-665 suppresses the growth and migration of ovarian cancer cells by targeting HOXA10

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer and its metastasis leads to a poor prognosis. The present study was designed to elucidate how microRNA (miR)-665 regulates the proliferation and migration of ovarian tumor cells. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) demonstrated that miR-665 expression was decreased in ovarian cancer tissues. Increased expression of miR-665 suppressed the growth and migration of ovarian cancer cells, whereas the downregulated expression of miR-665 led to the opposite results. Bioinformatics tools identified homeobox A10 (HOXA10) as a target of miR-665. Following miR-665 overexpression, HOXA10 protein expression was significantly reduced. A dual luciferase assay revealed that miR-665 bound to the 3′-untranslated region of HOXA10. Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR revealed that the expression of HOXA10 was negatively correlated with the expression of miR-665. It was concluded that miR-665 targets HOXA10 and may act as a tumor-suppressing gene in ovarian cancer. This pathway may be involved in the development and metastasis of ovarian cancer.