MicroRNA-205 increases the sensitivity of docetaxel in breast cancer

Chemotherapy has been widely used in breast cancer therapy, but the efficacy of chemotherapy is intimately associated with the sensitivity of therapeutic drugs to breast cancer. Docetaxel is a first-line chemotherapeutic drug in breast cancer treatment, but further improvement to its efficacy has thus far proved difficult. microRNAs (miRs) are a class of endogenous, small, non-coding RNAs, which regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. miR-205, a regulator of HER-3, is reported to be a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. In the present study, the reintroduction of miR-205 is shown to inhibit cell proliferation and clonogenic potential, and increase the sensitivity of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells to docetaxel. miR-205 also shows a synergistic effect with docetaxel in vivo. The present study provides a novel strategy to increase the sensitivity to docetaxel in breast cancer patients.