MicroRNA-27a-3p inhibits cell viability and migration through down-regulating DUSP16 in hepatocellular carcinoma

MicroRNA (miRNA or miR) has been shown to play an important role in the initiation and development in many different cancers. Here, we demonstrated down-regulated expression of miR-27a-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues in comparison with that in adjacent normal liver tissues based on the TCGA database. Cells viability and apoptosis was measured by CCK-8 and flow cytometry assay. Cell invasion and migration was measured by Transwell and wound healing assay. The effect of miR-27a-3p on DUSP16 expression was evaluated by luciferase assays, and western blot assay. miR-27a-3p up-regulation by transfection with miR-27a-3p mimics attenuated SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cell viability, invasion as well as migration, obviously. Moreover, we found that dual specificity phosphatase 16 (DUSP16), also known as mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 7 (MKP-7), is a target of miR-27a-3p. DUSP16 expression was obvious decrease by miR-27a-3p at both transcriptional and protein levels in both SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. DUSP16 expression in tissues of HCC was up-regulated in comparison with that in tissues of adjacent liver based on the TCGA database. Overexpression of DUSP16 significantly reversed the cell changes in viability, invasion and migration which resulted from miR-27a-3p up-regulation in SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells. Our findings contribute to current understanding of the functions of miR-27a-3p and suggest a mechanism by which miR-27a-3p plays an anti-tumor role in the development of HCC by targeting DUSP16.