Research Article

Suppression of AIFM3-Mediated Apoptosis Signal by miR-96-5p in Cancer Cells

10.37696/nkmj.707346

  • Esra BOZGEYIK

Received Date: 22.03.2020 Accepted Date: 02.08.2020 Namik Kemal Med J 2020;8(3):361-368

Aim:

Cancer is an important public health problem that is common throughout the world. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA transcripts that have important functions in the molecular mechanism of complex diseases such as cancer. In this study, it was aimed to reveal the effects of miR-96-5p on AIFM3 (apoptosis inducing factor mitochondria associated 3) gene and apoptosis in breast, lung and osteosarcoma cancer cells.

Materials and Methods:

Osteosarcoma (U2-OS), breast (MCF7) and lung (A549) cancer cells were grown under normal culture conditions and subsequently subjected to miR-96-5p mimic transfection. Mimic transfected cells were harvested and miRNA and total RNA isolations were performed. Gene expression analyzes were performed by Real-Time PCR.

Results:

Expression of AIFM3 gene was shown to be significantly reduced in breast (p=0.015) and lung (p=0.024) cancer cells after miR-96-5p mimic transfections. In osteosarcoma cells, the expression level of the AIFM3 gene was shown to be decreased after miR-96- 5p mimic transfections, but this change was not statistically significant. In addition, significant changes were found in the expression levels of apoptosis-related genes after mimic transfection in cancer cells. After miR-96-5p mimic transfection, the expression level of BCLxL (p = 0.043) and BCL2 (p = 0.0147) genes in MCF7 cells and BCL2 (p = 0.026) gene in A549 lung cancer cells were found to be increased.

Conclusion:

Consequently, it was found that by increasing the expression level of miR-96-5p in cancer cells, the expression level of AIFM3 gene decreased and apoptosis-associated signaling was suppressed. Further more comprehensive studies are needed to clearly understand the effects of miR-96-5p on apoptosis.

Keywords: AIFM3, apoptosis, cancer, miR-96-5p