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Updated: May 21, 2026

Characterization of Functionally Associated miRNAs in Glioblastoma and their Engineering into Artificial Clusters for Gene Therapy
Published on: October 4, 2019
MiR-21 modulates hTERT through a STAT3-dependent manner on glioblastoma cell growth
Ying-Yi Wang1, Guan Sun, Hui Luo
1Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, China.
Background And Purpose:
As an important oncogenic miRNA, miR-21 has been reported to play crucial roles in glioblastoma (GBM) carcinogenesis. However, the precise biological function and molecular mechanism of miR-21 in GBM remain elusive. This study is designed to explore the mechanism of miR-21 involved in the control of GBM cell growth.
Methods And Results:
MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, and apoptosis analysis showed that reduction of miR-21 inhibited cell growth in U87 and LN229 GBM cells. Further, reduction of miR-21 decreased the expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and repressed STAT3 expression and STAT3 phosphorylation. STAT3 inhibition led to a remarkable depletion of hTERT at both mRNA and protein levels by binding to the hTERT gene promoter by performing luciferase reporter assay and chromatin Immunoprecipitation PCR. Finally, knockdown of miR-21 considerably inhibited tumor growth and diminished the expression of STAT3 and hTERT in xenograft model.
Conclusion:
Our findings indicate that miR-21 regulates hTERT expression mediated by STAT3, therefore controlling GBM cell growth.
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