Methylation-regulated miR-149 modulates chemoresistance by targeting GlcNAc N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase-1 in human breast cancer

Dysregulation of microRNA is strongly implicated in the chemoresistance of cancer. In this study, we found that miR-149 was downregulated and involved in chemoresistance in adriamycin (ADM)-resistant human breast cancer cells (MCF-7/ADM). Downregulation of miR-149 was related to hypermethylation of its 5′-UTR; this methylation also affected the expression of the glypican 1 gene, which is both the host and the target gene of miR-149. Furthermore, we found that miR-149 modulated chemoresistance through targeting the expression of GlcNAc N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase-1 (NDST1). With downregulated miR-149, NDST1 expression was increased in chemoresistant MCF-7/ADM cells versus control MCF-7 wild-type cells. The increased NDST1 then activated a heparan sulfate-related pathway involving activation of heparanase. Finally, expression of miR-149 and NDST1 was confirmed in clinical chemoresistant samples of breast cancers receiving anthracycline/taxane-based chemotherapies. The high expression of NDST1 was also an unfavorable predictor for distant relapse-free survival in Her2 and basal breast cancers. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that miR-149 is regulated by methylation, and is a modulator of cancer chemoresistance by targeting NDST1.