19q13.41

MIRN125A,miRNA125A,mir-125a

Breast Cancer

miR-125a and its homolog miR-125b were identified to be significantly downregulated in ERBB2-amplified and overexpressing breast cancers. Ectopic expression of miR-125a and miR-125b in the ERBB2 dependent human breast cancer line, SKBR3, caused suppression of its anchorage-dependent growth and inhibition of its mobility and invasive capabilities. Ectopic expression miR-125a and miR-125b in non-transformed and ERBB2-independent MCF10a cells produced inhibitory effects on its anchorage-dependent growth and no significant impact on the mobility of these non-invasive human breast epithelial cells. Furthermore, miR-125a and miR-125b targets, ERBB2 and ERBB3, were downregulated when these two microRNAs were expressed in SKBR3 cells. Downregulation of ERBB2 and ERBB3 decreased the motility and invasiveness features of SKBR3 cells.

Prostate Cancer

MicroRNA levels were examined by microarrays in 10 benign peripheral zone tissues and 16 prostate cancer tissues. Widespread downregulation of miR-125b was shown in prostate cancer tissues. These results were also verified by qRT-PCR. Among 328 known and 152 novel human microRNAs, miR-125b was one of the most downregulated microRNAs in prostate cancer. Some bioinformatically predicted targets of miR-125b were found to be upregulated in prostate cancer, shown by microarray analysis ( EIF4EBP1, RPL29, MGC16063 and PAPB) and immunohistochemistry ( RAS, E2F3, BCL-2 and MCL-1). Increased expression EIF4EBP1 was also confirmed through qRT-PCR, in 61 human prostate tumors and 19 normal tissues. Several microRNA paralogous groups, having high levels of sequence similarity, were also found to be downregulated in prostate cancer. Along with miR-125a, and miR-125b, other members of let-7 family microRNAs were also downregulated. This finding indicated that these microRNAs with similar sequences might potentially target similar mRNAs.

Neuroblastoma

miR-125a and miR-125b transcription was elevated in response to retinoic acid (RA) treatment in human neuroblastoma cell line (SK-N-BE), confirmed by Northern blot and qRT-PCR. Neurotrophin Receptor Tropomyosin-Related Kinase C ( NTRK3 ) is a key regulator protein of the neuroblastoma cell proliferation. Only the truncated form of NTRK3 was found to be a target of both miR-125a and miR-125b. Downregulation of tNTRK3 is critical for growth of neuroblastoma cells. Ectopic expression of miR-125a and miR-125b in primary neuroblastoma cells, (SK-N-BE), resulted in the downregulation of tNTRK3. Downregulation of these microRNAs in neuroblastoma cells resulted in tumor formation whereas upregulation of them resulted in in-vitro neuronal differentiation.