MicroRNA 483-3p targets Pard3 to potentiate TGF-β1-induced cell migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition in anaplastic thyroid cancer cells

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is associated with poor prognosis and is often untreatable. MicroRNA 483-3p (miR-483) and partitioning-defective 3 (Pard3), a member of the Pard family, have functions and regulatory mechanisms in ATC. The abnormal regulation of miR-483 may play an important role in tumorigenesis, and Par3 is known to regulate cell polarity, cell migration, and cell division. Tumor proliferation promoted by the regulation of miRNA expression can be regulated in thyroid cancer by upregulating transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), which is thought to interact with Pard3. When compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues, we found that miR-483 was upregulated and Pard3 was downregulated in 80 thyroid tumor samples. Disease-free survival was decreased when expression of miR-483 was upregulated and Pard3 expression was downregulated. Cell growth, migration, and invasion were induced by overexpression of miR-483. However, knockdown of miR-483 resulted in a loss of cell invasion and viability, both in vitro and in vivo. The expression of Pard3 was increased by the inhibition of miR-483, but TGF-β1-induced cell migration and invasion were decreased by miR-483 inhibition. A dual-luciferase reporter assay determined that Pard3 expression was downregulated when targeted with miR-483. The epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), as well as Tiam1-Rac signaling, was induced by TGF-β1, which was decreased by the overexpression of Pard3. Pard3 decreased the inhibition of EMT and Tiam-Rac1 signaling, which resulted from transfection of ATC cells with miR-483. Overall, the results showed that downregulation of Pard3 resulted in increased cell invasion and EMT in ATC, which was promoted by treatment with miR-483. These findings suggest novel therapeutic targets and treatment strategies for this disease.