MicroRNA-374a Governs Aggressive Cell Behaviors of Glioma by Targeting Prokineticin 2.

MicroRNA-374a has been abnormally expressed in several cancer types; however， its role in glioma remains unclear. Therefore， we aimed to investigate whether microR-374a participated in the progression of glioma. Expression of microR-374a in glioma cell lines and normal cell line was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Luciferase reporter assay and Western blot were used to detect the targets of microR-374a. In vitro functional experiments were conducted to investigate the biological role of microR-374a. Low expression of microR-374a was found in glioma cell lines. Prokineticin 2 was identified as a direct target of microR-374a in glioma. Investigations on the mechanisms related to glioma progression showed that microR-374a inhibited glioma cell proliferation， cell cycle progression， and cell invasion through targeting Prokineticin 2. Taken together， these results revealed that microR-374a functions as tumor suppressor by targeting Prokineticin 2， suggesting it might be a novel therapeutic target for glioma.