MiR-1271-5p promotes the growth and migration of neuroblastoma cells by regulating ACY-1

Transl Cancer Res. 2024 Jul 31;13(7):3397-3406. doi: 10.21037/tcr-24-25. Epub 2024 Jul 16.

Abstract

Background: Aminoacylase 1 (ACY-1) has been found to be a tumor suppressor gene in neuroblastoma (NB). This study aimed to identify and verify the microRNAs (miRNAs) that may regulate ACY-1 through database prediction analysis, and verify the mutual regulatory effect of miRNA and ACY-1 in NB through cell experiments.

Methods: The miRNAs that might bind ACY-1 were predicted and selected by TargetScan, miRTarBase and four other databases, the expression of the predicted miRNAs and ACY-1 was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in four groups of clinical samples, and the differentially expressed miRNAs were screened. Then, luciferase vector was constructed according to the ACY-1 gene sequence to detect whether ACY-1 binds to the selected miRNA. Then, miR-1271-5p expression was silenced to detect miR-1271-5p function in the growth and migration of NB. Finally, ACY-1 and miR-1271-5p were silenced to change ACY-1 expression, and ACY-1 function in NB and the regulatory role of miR-1271-5p were explored.

Results: ACY-1 was downregulated in NB, miR-1271-5p was upregulated in NB, and miR-1271-5p could be targeted to ACY-1. Silencing miR-1271-5p expression can reduce cell viability and inhibit tumor progression. After interfering with ACY-1 expression in cells, cell viability was enhanced, apoptosis was significantly decreased, and migration and invasion were enhanced. After partially restoring ACY-1 expression, the effect of si-ACY-1 on cells was weakened. In SK-N-SH and SH-SY-5Y cells, the miR-1271-5p inhibitor restored ACY-1 expression and improved ACY-1 function.

Conclusions: MiR-1271-5p can promote the growth and migration of tumor cells by inhibiting ACY-1 expression in NB.

Keywords: Neuroblastoma (NB); aminoacylase 1 (ACY-1); cell migration; cell proliferation; miR-1271-5p.