Downregulated miR-383-5p contributes to the proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells and is associated with poor prognosis

Aim: The study aims to identify differentially expressed microRNAs (DEMs) in gastric cancer (GC) and explore the expression, prognosis and downstream regulation role of miR-383-5p in GC. Methods: The GC miRNA-Seq and clinical information were downloaded from Firebrowse which stores integrated data sourced from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. The DEMs were identified with limma package in R software at the cut-off criteria of P < 0.05 and vertical bar log2 fold change vertical bar > 1.0 (vertical bar log2FC vertical bar > 1.0). The expression of miR-383-5p in GC cell lines and 54 paired GC tissues was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The overall survival curve of miR-383-5p and the association between its expression and clinicopathological features were explored. Wound healing and cell counting kit-8 assays were performed to investigate the capacity of miR-383-5p in cell proliferation and migration. The downstream target genes were predicted by bioinformatics tools (miRDB, TargetScan and starBase). The consensus target genes were selected for gene functional enrichment analysis by FunRich v3.0 software. The luciferase reporter assay was performed to verify the potential targeting sites of miR-383-5p on lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA). Results: A total of 21 down-regulated miRNAs (including miR-383-5p) and 202 up-regulated miRNAs were identified by analyzing GC miRNA-Seq data. Survival analysis found that patients with low miR-383-5p expression had a shorter survival time (median survival time 21.1 months) than those with high expression (46.9 months). The results of qRT-PCR indicated that miR-383-5p was downregulated in GC cell lines and tissues, which was consistent with miRNA-Seq data. The expression of miR-383-5p was significantly associated with tumor size and differentiation grade. Besides, overexpression of miR-383-5p suppressed GC cells proliferation and migration. A total of 49 common target genes of miR-383-5p were obtained by bioinformatics tools and gene functional enrichment analysis showed that these predicted genes participated in PI3K, mTOR, c-MYC, TGF-beta receptor, VEGF/VEGFR and E-cadherin signaling pathways. The data showed that expression of miR-383-5p was negatively correlated with target LDHA (r = -0.203). Luciferase reporter assay suggested that LDHA was a target of miR-383-5p. Conclusion: The present study concluded that miR-383-5p was downregulated and may act as a tumor suppressor in GC. Furthermore, its target genes were involved in important signaling pathways. It could be a prognostic biomarker and play a vital role in exploring the molecular mechanism of GC.