MiR-202 Suppresses Cell EMT by Regulating GLI2 and Predicts Prognosis of Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is a common gynecologic malignancy worldwide with high morbidity and mortality. MiR-202 was recently discovered to be a suppressor miRNA in many tumors, including CC. GLI family zinc finger 2 (GLI2) is a member of the Gli family, which binds DNA through zinc finger motifs. This study investigated the effects of miR-202 and GLI2 on cell metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in CC. Material and Methods: The miRNA expression and clinical information in patients with CC were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The connection between miR-202 or GLI2 and CC prognosis was analyzed by R packages, the correlation between miR-202 expression and GLI2 expression was determined. The expression of miR-202 messenger RNA (mRNA) in CC tissues and cells was quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The expression of GLI2 and EMT related marker proteins in CC cells was detected by western blotting. The migration and invasion abilities of CC cells were investigated by Transwell assay. The interaction between miR-202 and GLI2 in CC cells was verified by the dual luciferase reporter gene assay. Results: MiR-202 was lowly expressed while GLI2 mRNA and proteins were highly expressed in CC patients and cells compared with normal people and cells (p < 0.01). There were binding sites between miR-202 and GLI2 mRNA and the expression of miR-202 negatively correlated with the expression of GLI2 mRNA. The overexpression of miR-202 inhibited HeLa cell metastasis and EMT compared with the control group (p < 0.01), which could be reversed by binding with GLI2. Conclusions: MiR-202 overexpression inhibits CC cell metastasis and EMT by regulating GLI2 mRNA expression in CC. The miR-202/GLI2 axis provides new insights for the clinical treatment of CC.