Therapeutic Potential of an Anti-diabetic Drug, Metformin: Alteration of miRNA expression in Prostate Cancer Cells

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in males in many populations. Metformin is the most widely used anti-diabetic drug in the world, and there is increasing evidence of a potential efficacy of this agent as an anti-cancer drug. Metformin inhibits the proliferation of a range of cancer cells including prostate, colon, breast, ovarian, and glioma lines. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non- coding, single-stranded RNAs that downregulate gene expression. We aimed to evaluate the effects of metformin treatment on changes in miRNA expression in PC-3 cells, and possible associations with biological behaviour.Average cell viability and cytotoxic effects of metformin were investigated at 24 hour intervals for three days using the xCELLigence system. The IC50 dose of metformin in the PC-3 cells was found to be 5 mM. RNA samples were used for analysis using custom multi-species microarrays containing 1209 probes covering 1221 human mature microRNAs present in miRBase 16.0 database.Among the human miRNAs investigated by the arrays, 10 miRNAs were up-regulated and 12 miRNAs were down-regulated in the metformin-treated group as compared to the control group. In conclusion, expression changes in miRNAs of miR-146a, miR-100, miR-425, miR-193a-3p and, miR-106b in metformin-treated cells may be important. This study may emphasize a new role of metformin on the regulation of miRNAs in prostate cancer.