Effects of miR-373 Inhibition on Glioblastoma Growth by Reducing Limk1 In Vitro

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive brain tumor with shorter median overall survival time. It is urgent to find novel methods to enhance the therapeutic efficiency clinically. miR-373 is related to the biological development process of cancers, but there are no reports whether modulation on miR-373 could affect GBM development or modify the efficiency of chemo- or radiotherapy yet. Our current study found that the higher level of miR-373 was observed in U-251 cells. Inhibition on miR-373 could reduce the U-251 cell number by 65% and PCNA expression obviously. In addition, inhibition on miR-373 sensitized U-251 cells to chemo- or radiotherapy. The cell cycle of U-251 cells could be modulated by miR-373 knockdown, which could enhance the p21 expression and reduce the cdc2 level. Anti-miR-373 could increase the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio of U-251 cells and induce cell apoptosis significantly. These above effects of miR-373 could be reversed by Limk1 overexpression. Thus, our experimental data confirmed the fact that miR-373 could be a new therapeutic target to enhance the efficiency of chemo- or radiotherapy for clinical GBM patients.