Flot2 targeted by miR-449 acts as a prognostic biomarker in glioma

Flotillin-2 (FLOT2) was reported as oncogene and involves in the pathogenic process of several cancers, yet the precise mechanism of FLOT2 in glioma is still limited. In this study, we demonstrated that FLOT2 expression levels were greatly upregulated in glioma tissues and cell lines, and the FLOT2 expression in glioma tissue was markedly associated with tumour stage and size. Overexpression of FLOT2 was correlated with poor prognosis of glioma patients. The functional assay revealed that silenced FLOT2 repressed the viability, migration, and invasion of glioma cells. And then, we detected the relationship between miR-449 and FLOT2. Luciferase reporter assay and Western blot results showed that miR-449 directly binding the 3'UTR sequence of FLOT2 and regulated FLOT2 expression in glioma cells. Finally, we detected the expression levels of miR-449 in glioma tissue and cell lines and found that miR-449 was significantly downregulated in glioma tissues and cell lines. In conclusion, we demonstrated that overexpression FLOT2 was associated with poor prognosis of glioma patients and involved in the progression of glioma, identifying a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for glioma progression.