Dinitrosopiperazine-decreased PKP3 through upregulating miR-149 participates in nasopharyngeal carcinoma metastasis

: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has a high metastatic clinicopathological feature. As a carcinogen factor, N,N'-dinitrosopiperazine (DNP) is involved in NPC metastasis, but its precise mechanism has not been fully elucidated. Herein, we showed that DNP promotes NPC metastasis through upregulating miR-149. DNP was found to decrease Plakophilin3 (PKP3) expression, further DNP-decreased PKP3 was verified to be through upregulating miR-149. We also found that DNP induced proliferation, adhesion, migration and invasion of NPC cell, which was inhibited by miR-149-inhibitor. DNP may promote NPC metastasis through miR-149-decreased PKP3 expression. Therefore, DNP-increased miR-149 expression may be an important factor of NPC high metastasis, and miR-149 may serve as a molecular target for anti-metastasis therapy of NPC.