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Updated: May 20, 2026

miRNA Expression Analyses in Prostate Cancer Clinical Tissues
Published on: September 8, 2015
Suppression of CX43 expression by miR-20a in the progression of human prostate cancer
Xin Li1, Jin-Hong Pan, Bo Song
1Urologic Institute of PLA, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Abstract:
The aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been found in various types of cancer. The present study found miR-20a to be significantly upregulated in prostate cancer compared with normal prostate tissues. The proliferation and colony formation assays revealed that the downregulation of miR-20a by miR-20a inhibitor suppresses the proliferation of MDA-PCa-2b cells in vitro and also inhibits tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, a gap junction protein, α 1 (CX43), was identified as a direct target gene of miR-20a. The upregulation of CX43 was detected in MDA-PCa-2b cells after treatment with miR-20a inhibitor both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, the findings show that miR-20a significantly contributes to the progression of prostate cancer by targeting CX43.
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