%0 Journal Article
%T Down-regulated miR-23a Contributes to the Metastasis of Cutaneous Melanoma by Promoting Autophagy
%A Chunying Li
%A Gang Wang
%A Huina Wang
%A Jingjing Ma
%A Lin Liu
%A Ling Liu
%A Qiong Shi
%A Sen Guo
%A Tao Zhao
%A Tianwen Gao
%A Weigang Zhang
%A Weinan Guo
%A Xiuli Yi
%A Yu Liu
%A Yuqi Yang
%A Zhe Jian
%J Theranostics
%D 2017
%I Ivyspring International Publisher
%R 10.7150/thno.18835
%X Melanoma is among the most aggressive tumors, and the occurrence of metastasis leads to a precipitous drop in the patients' survival. Therefore, identification of metastasis-associated biomarkers and therapeutic targets will contribute a lot to improving melanoma theranostics. Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in modulating cancer invasion and metastasis, and are proved as potential non-invasive biomarkers in sera for various tumors. Here, we reported miR-23a as a novel metastasis-associated miRNA that played a remarkable role in modulating melanoma invasive and metastatic capacity and was of great value in predicting melanoma metastasis and prognosis. We found that serum miR-23a level was significantly down-regulated in metastatic melanoma patients and highly correlated with poor clinical outcomes. In addition, miR-23a level was also remarkably decreased in metastatic melanoma tissues and cell lines. Furthermore, overexpressed miR-23a suppressed the invasive and migratory property of melanoma cells by abrogating autophagy through directly targeting ATG12. Specially, miR-23a-ATG12 axis attenuated melanoma invasion and migration through autophagy-mediated AMPK-RhoA pathway. Finally, the overexpression of miR-23a prevented melanoma metastasis in vivo. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that the metastasis-associated miR-23a is not only a potential biomarker, but also a valuable therapeutic target for melanoma.
%K melanoma
%K miR-23a
%K biomarker
%K autophagy
%K metastasis.
%U http://www.thno.org/v07p2231.htm