MicroRNA-1297 inhibits metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by targeting AEG-1 in cervical cancer

Abstract Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that aberrant miRNAs contribute to cervical cancer (CC) development and progression. However, the roles of various miRNAs in CC remain to be determined. In the present study, we confirmed that a decreased miR-1297 expression was present in CC tissues and cell lines. Our clinical analysis revealed that the downregulated miR-1297 expression was significantly correlated with poor prognostic features including lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular space invasion. Moreover, we confirmed that miR-1297 was a novel independent prognostic marker for predicting the 5-year survival of CC patients. The ectopic overexpression of miR-1297 inhibited cell migration, invasion and EMT progression, while downregulated miR-1297 reversed these effects. In addition, miR-1297 regulated AEG-1 by directly binding to its 3'-UTR. In clinical samples of CC, miR-1297 was inversely correlated with AEG-1, which was upregulated in CC. Alteration of AEG-1 expression at least partially abolished the migration, invasion and EMT progression effects of miR-1297 on CC cells. In conclusion, our results indicated that miR-1297 functioned as a tumor suppressor gene in regulating the EMT and metastasis of CC via targeting of AEG-1, and may represent a novel potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker for CC.