MiR-30a-5p suppresses tumor growth in colon carcinoma by targeting DTL

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that are involved in different biological processes by suppressing target gene expression. Altered expression of miR-30a-5p has been reported in colon carcinoma. To elucidate its potential biological role in colon cancer, miR-30a-5p was overexpressed via a lentiviral vector system in two different colon cancer cell lines. This induced in both lines miR-30a-5p-mediated growth inhibition, attributable to a cell cycle arrest at the G(1) phase and an induction of apoptosis. Combining global gene expression analyses of miR-30a-5p transgenic line HCT116 with in silico miRNA target prediction, we identified the denticleless protein homolog (DTL) as a potential miRNA-30a-5p target. Subsequent reporter gene assays confirmed the predicted miR-30a-5p binding site in the 3'untranslated region of DTL. Importantly, overexpression of DTL in HCT116 cells partially rescued these cells from miR-30a-5p-mediated growth suppression. In addition, TP53 and CDKN1A expression were increased in miR-30a-5p-overexpressing HCT116 cells, suggesting that miR-30a-5p is able to modulate the cell cycle via a DTL-TP53-CDKN1A regulatory circuit. Finally, 379 colorectal cancer tissues were screened for DTL expression and DTL was found to be overexpressed in 95.8% of human colorectal cancers compared with normal colon mucosa. In conclusion, our data identified miR-30a-5p as a tumor-suppressing miRNA in colon cancer cells exerting its function via modulation of DTL expression, which is frequently overexpressed in colorectal cancer. Thus, our data suggest that restoring miR-30a-5p function may prove useful as therapeutic strategy for tumors with reduced miR-30a-5p expression.