The long non-coding RNA H19-derived miR-675 modulates human gastric cancer cell proliferation by targeting tumor suppressor RUNX1

• H19 regulates gastric cancer cell proliferation phenotype via miR-675.
• MiR-675 modulates cell proliferation of gastric cancer cells by targeting tumor suppressor RUNX1.
• The H19/miR-675/RUNX1 axis plays an important role in the tumorigenesis of gastric cancer.

The lncRNA H19 has been recently shown to be upregulated and play important roles in gastric cancer tumorigenesis. However, the precise molecular mechanism of H19 and its mature product miR-675 in the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer remains unclear. In this study, we found that miR-675 was positively expressed with H19 and was a pivotal mediator in H19-induced gastric cancer cell growth promotion. Subsequently, the tumor suppressor Runt Domain Transcription Factor1 (RUNX1) was confirmed to be a direct target of miR-675 using a luciferase reporter assay and Western blotting analyses. A series of rescue assays indicated that RUNX1 mediated H19/miR-67-induced gastric cancer cell phenotypic changes. Moreover, the inverse relationship between the expression of RUNX1 and H19/miR-675 was also revealed in gastric cancer tissues and gastric cancer cell lines. Taken together, our study demonstrated that the novel pathway H19/miR-675/RUNX1 regulates gastric cancer development and may serve as a potential target for gastric cancer therapy.

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