The function of miR-637 in non-small cell lung cancer progression and prognosis

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer with a high mortality rate and poor prognosis. miR-637 has been reported to regulate tumor progression and act as a prognosis biomarker of various cancers. Its functional role in NSCLC was investigated in this study. Methods: The expression level of miR-637 in NSCLC tissues and adjacent normal tissues of 123 NSCLC patients was analyzed by qRT-PCR. The association between miR-637 and clinical patho-logical features in the prognosis of patients was analyzed. Cell transfection was performed to overexpress or knockdown miR-637 in H1299 and HCC827. The proliferation, migration, and inva-sion of H1299 and HCC827 were evaluated by CCK8 and Transwell assay. Results: miR-637 expression was significantly decreased in NSCLC tissues and cell lines relative to normal tissues and cells. The survival rate of NSCLC patients with low miR-637 expression was lower than that of patients with high miR-637 expression. Additionally, miR-637 served as a tumor suppressor that inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC. Conclusion: Downregulation of miR-637 in NSCLC was associated with TNM stage and poor prog-nosis of patients and served as a tumor suppressor in NSCLC. These results provide a potential strategy to control NSCLC. & COPY; 2021 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologia. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).