MiR-369-3p participates in endometrioid adenocarcinoma via the regulation of autophagy

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to examine miRNA profiling and miR-369-3p participates in endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EEC) via the regulation of autophagy. METHODS: EEC and its adjacent normal tissues were obtained from 20 clinical patients after surgery. MiRNA profiling was performed using next generation sequencing (NGS) and was validated with quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR). qRT-PCR was also employed to measure miR-369-3p and autophagy-related protein 10 (ATG10) expression levels. Western blotting assay was performed to measure the expressions of ATG10 and LC3B. Luciferase reporter assay was conducted to confirm the direct targeting of ATG10 by miR-369-3p. Cell proliferation and migration assays were utilized to analyze the role of miR-369-3p in HEC-1-A cells. RESULTS: We found that miR-369-3p expression levels were down-regulated in EEC compared to the control tissues. The overexpression of miR-369-3p inhibited cell proliferation and migration in EEC; furthermore, ATG10 expression increased in EEC tissues. ATG10 was found to be a potential target of miR-369-3p via a dual-luciferase reporter assay, and ATG10 was shown to be down-regulated by miR-369-3p in protein levels. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that miR-369-3p inhibited cell proliferation and migration by targeting ATG10 via autophagy in EEC. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-019-0897-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.