MicroRNA‐769‐5p suppresses cell growth and migration via targeting NUSAP1 in bladder cancer

BACKGROUND: Nucleolar and spindle‐associated protein 1 (NUSAP1) has been identified to be strongly implicated in the carcinogenesis of cervical carcinoma, breast cancer, and liver cancer, and shows a high expression level in bladder cancer, indicating that NUSAP1 might be a potent target for cancer treatment. Using bioinformatics methods, we found that NUSAP1 was a putative target of miR‐769‐5p. Here, we aimed to explore whether miR‐769‐5p is involved in bladder cancer progression via targeting NUSAP1. METHODS: MiR‐769‐5p expression patterns in bladder cancer tissues and cells were detected by RT‐PCR. Kaplan‐Meier was used to determine the clinical effects of miR‐769‐5p expression levels on the overall survival of bladder cancer patients. Bioinformatics methods were used to predict the binding sites between miR‐769‐5p and NUSAP1, which was verified by the luciferase gene reporter assay. CCK‐8, flow cytometry, wound healing and transwell chamber experiments were performed to test cell growth, apoptosis, migration and invasion capacities. RESULTS: miR‐769‐5p was lowly expressed in bladder cancer tissues and cells, which was closely associated with poor prognosis. Overexpression of miR‐769‐5p induced significant repressions in cell growth, migration, and invasion and caused an obvious increase in cell apoptosis, whereas these tendencies were reversed when NUSAP1 was upregulated. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that miR‐769‐5p functions as a tumor suppressor in bladder cancer via targeting NUSAP1.