Role of miRNA‐542‐5p in the tumorigenesis of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma, one of the most common malignant bone tumors, is characterized by a high rate of metastasis, and the survival rate of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma is poor. Previous studies have reported that miRNAs often regulate the occurrence and development of various tumors. In this work, we identified miRNA‐542‐5p as a critical miRNA in osteosarcoma by overlapping three Gene Expression Omnibus datasets, and then evaluated miRNA‐542‐5p expression profiles using Gene Expression Omnibus and Sarcoma‐microRNA Expression Database. We used MISIM to investigate miRNAs correlated with miR‐542 and identified potential target genes of miRNA‐542‐5p using miRWalk. Functional and pathway enrichment analyses were performed using The Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. Protein–protein interaction was performed using Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes and Cytoscape. We report that the relative level of miRNA‐542‐5p was significantly higher in osteosarcoma than in healthy bone. Expressions of hsa‐miR‐330 and hsa‐miR‐1202 were found to be strongly correlated with that of miR‐542‐5p. Furthermore, we identified a total of 514 down‐regulated genes as possible targets of miR‐542‐5p. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis demonstrated that the putative target genes of miR‐542‐5p were most enriched in the cell‐cycle process. The differentially expressed genes CDCA5, PARP12 and HSPD1 were found to be hub genes in protein–protein interaction networks. Finally, transfection of the osteosarcoma cell line U2OS with miR‐542‐5p mimics or inhibitor revealed that miR‐542‐5p can promote cell proliferation. In conclusion, our results suggest that miR‐542‐5p may promote osteosarcoma proliferation; thus, this miRNA may have potential as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis.