Downregulated miR-1247-5p associates with poor prognosis and facilitates tumor cell growth via DVL1/Wnt/β-catenin signaling in breast cancer

The abnormal expression of microRNAs is a key hallmark of breast cancer. Nevertheless, the biological roles of miR-1247-5p in breast cancer remain unknown. In this study, we revealed that miR-1247-5p expression was markedly decreased in breast cancer. It was a valuable diagnostic biomarker for breast cancer with the area under the curve of more than 0.80. Reduced miR-1247-5p expression was significantly correlated with patient age, tumor size, and poor prognosis in The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort including 839 breast cancer patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that miR-1247-5p was an independent prognostic indicator for overall survival (hazard radio [HR] = 1.683, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.087-2.606, p = 0.020) and recurrence-free survival (HR = 2.496, 95% CI = 1.576-3.951, p < 0.001). Moreover, functional studies showed that overexpression of miR-1247-5p inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells. Bioinformatics analysis and mechanistic investigations revealed that Dishevelled 1 (DVL1) was a direct target of miR-1247-5p. Inhibition of DVL1 by miR-1247-5p resulted in the suppression of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, whereas overexpression of DVL1 abrogated the miR-1247-5p-mediated effect. These data reveal that miR-1247-5p, as an oncosuppressor in breast cancer, may be a promising prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.