MicroRNA-606 inhibits the growth and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer by targeting Stanniocalcin 1

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with a poor prognosis; however, treatments for TNBC are limited, with poor outcomes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that are able to regulate gene expression. The present study aimed to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in patients with breast cancer, and to investigate the functional role of the identified miRNA targets and their effects in vitro and in vivo. Transfection with miR-606 suppressed TNBC cell proliferation, migration, invasion and tumor sphere-forming ability, as determined using trypan blue, Transwell and sphere formation assays. Moreover, miR-606 induced the apoptosis of TNBC cells, as determined by flow cytometric analysis. Furthermore, intratumoral injections of miR-606 mimics suppressed tumor growth in MDA-MB-231 xenografts. In addition, MDA-MB-231 cells transfected with miR-606 mimics exhibited decreased lung metastatic nodules in a mouse tail vein injection model. Notably, miR-606 and STC1 expression had opposing effects on the overall survival of patients with TNBC. The results of the present study suggested a novel tumor suppressor function for miR-606 in TNBC, thus indicating its potential application in the development of anticancer miRNA therapeutics.