MiR-490-3p Inhibits the Malignant Progression of Lung Adenocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of miR-490-3p on the proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells through the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. METHODS: Differentially expressed miRNAs in LUAD tissues were analyzed by bioinformatics and the target miRNA went through GSEA enrichment analysis. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of miR-490-3p in human LUAD cells and normal bronchial cells. The constructed vectors were transfected into the LUAD cell lines using Lipofectamine 2000. Cell viability was detected by MTT, cell migration and invasion were detected by transwell assay, and cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Western blot was performed to detect the expression levels of the proteins related to the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and cell apoptosis. Xenograft tumor mouse models were used for in vivo validation. RESULTS: The results of qRT-PCR showed that miR-490-3p was relatively lowly expressed in LUAD cells, and the expression level was different in different LUAD cell lines. The results of MTT, transwell and flow cytometry exhibited that miR-490-3p could significantly inhibit the proliferation, migration, invasion and increase cell apoptosis rate of LUAD cells. Western blot results showed that miR-490-3p promoted the expression of Bax, Caspase-3 and E-cadherin as well as the phosphorylation of GSK-3β and inhibited the expression of Bcl-2, β-catenin and C-myc. Additionally, animal experiments were performed to prove that miR-490-3p suppressed LUAD malignant progression in vivo. CONCLUSION: MiR-490-3p inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and promoted the apoptosis of LUAD cells by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, suggesting that miR-490-3p may be an indicator for early diagnosis and prognosis of LUAD.