miR-92a promotes tumor growth of osteosarcoma by targeting PTEN/AKT signaling pathway

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in human cancers including osteosarcoma (OS). miR-92a has been found to be a cancer-related miRNA in many cancer types and it is upregulated in OS cell lines. However, the expression and biological function of miR-92a in OS have not been investigated. In this study, we showed that miR-92a expression was increased in OS tissues, and its high expression was correlated with clinical stage, T classification and histological differentiation. Furthermore, patients with high expression of miR-92a had a significantly poorer survival rate. Functionally, miR-92a overexpression promoted the proliferation and cell cycle progression, and inhibited apoptosis in MG-63 cells. While inhibition of miR-92a showed contrary effects with reduced proliferation, cell cycle arrest at G1 phase and increased apoptosis in U2OS cells. Moreover, we confirmed that miR-92a inhibition reversed the tumor growth of OS cells in nude mice. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), a well-known tumor suppressor, was confirmed to be the direct downstream target of miR-92a in OS. Notably, miR-92a consequently regulated the expression of the downstream targets of PTEN/AKT signaling pathway including p-Akt(Ser473), mTOR, p-p27(Thr157) and p-MDM2(Ser166). Furthermore, PTEN knockdown abrogated the functional effects of miR-92a silencing on the proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle progression in OS cells. Thus, miR-92a that exerts an oncogenic role by targeting PTEN/AKT pathway in OS potentially acts as a biomarker and drug-target.