High expression of miR-105-1 positively correlates with clinical prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting oncogene NCOA1

// Yu-Shui Ma 1, 2, * , Ting-Miao Wu 1, 3, * , Zhong-Wei Lv 1, * , Gai-Xia Lu 1, * , Xian-Ling Cong 4, * , Ru-Ting Xie 5 , Hui-Qiong Yang 5 , Zheng-Yan Chang 5 , Ran Sun 4 , Li Chai 1 , Ming-Xiang Cai 1 , Xiao-Jun Zhong 6 , Jian Zhu 7 , Da Fu 8 1 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072, China 2 Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Molecular Therapeutics and New Drug Development, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China 3 Department of Radiology, The Fourth Affiliated Hospital, Medical University of Anhui, Hefei 230601, China 4 Tissue Bank, China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun 130033, China 5 Department of Pathology, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072, China 6 Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang 330006, China 7 Department of Digestive Surgery, Rui Jin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China 8 Central Laboratory for Medical Research, Shanghai Tenth People’s Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xiao-Jun Zhong, email: leon176@163.com Jian Zhu, email: czjyl@163.com Da Fu, email: fu800da900@126.com Keywords: miR-105-1, HCC, biomarker, survival, target Received: September 22, 2016     Accepted: December 21, 2016     Published: January 02, 2017 ABSTRACT Increasing evidence supports that microRNA (miRNA) plays a significant functional role in cancer progression by directly regulating respective targets. In this study, the expression levels of miR-105-1 and its target gene were analyzed using genes microarray and hierarchical clustering analysis followed by validation with quantitative RT-PCR in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and normal liver tissues. We examined the expression of nuclear receptor coactivator 1 (NCOA1), the potential target gene of miR-105-1, following the transfection of miR-105-1 mimics or inhibitors. Our results showed that miR-105-1 was downregulated in HCC tissues when compared with normal liver tissues and patients with lower miR-105-1 expression had shorter overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). Moreover, NCOA1 was confirmed to be a direct target of miR-105-1. Furthermore, concomitant high expression of NCOA1 and low expression of miR-105-1 correlated with a shorter median OS and PFS in HCC patients. In conclusion, our results provide the first evidence that NCOA1 is a direct target of miR-105-1 suggesting that NCOA1 and miR-105-1 may have potential prognostic value and may be useful as tumor biomarkers for the diagnosis of HCC patients.