MiRNA-199 inhibits malignant progression of lung cancer through mediating RGS17
Authors: W-Z Su
L-F Ren
Journal: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences (2019)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: miRNA-199; lung cancer; tumor suppressor gene; clinicopathological parameters; prognosis
Affiliations: Department of Respiration, Shanxi Cancer Hospital, Taiyuan, China. .

Abstract:  Objective: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous, non-coding small RNAs, which play an important part in regulating organismal and pathological processes. Previous studies have shown that miRNA-199 acts as a tumor suppressor gene. However, we aimed to explore the characteristics and function of miRNA-199 in lung cancer (LCa), so as to further study its relationship with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis. Patients and methods: Quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect miRNA-199 expression in 75 pairs of LCa tissues and normal adjacent tissues. In addition, the relationship between miRNA-199 expression and pathological features along with the prognosis of LCa patients were investigated. Besides, the expression level of miRNA-199 in LCa cells was further validated by qRT-PCR. In addition, miRNA-199 overexpression expression model was constructed in LCa cell lines H1299 and SPCA1. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), cell cloning experiments, transwell invasion and migration assays were performed to analyze the effect of miRNA-199 on the biological function of LCa cells. Finally, the potential mechanism was explored using Western blot. Results: qRT-PCR results displayed that the expression level of miRNA-199 in LCa tissues was significantly lower than that of the normal tissues. Compared with patients with high miRNA-199 expression, patients with lowly-expressed miRNA-199 had higher rates of lymph node metastases and distant metastases, and their overall survival rates were lower. In addition, the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of the miRNA-199 overexpression group were significantly increased than that in the negative control group. Western Blot results showed that the expression of key proteins in the EMT pathway, such as N-cadherin, Vimentin, β-catenin and MMP9 significantly increased in miRNA-199 overexpression group. Moreover, we also found that miRNA-199 and RGS17 have mutual regulation, which inhibited the malignant progression of LCa. Conclusions: miRNA-199 expression was down-regulated in LCa and was significantly associated with LCa stage, distant metastasis, and poor prognosis. Besides, miRNA-199 may inhibit the malignant progression of LCa by interacting with RGS17. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 *[right]* Figs 1D, 4E from [Su Ren (2019)] .  D, Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients with LCa based on miRNA-199 expression ;  Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients with LCa based on RGS17 expression . *[left]* Figs 1D, 3E from [Wu et al (2019)] .  FOXC2-AC1 is highly expressed in lung cancer tissues and cell lines. ... D, Kaplan-Meier survival curve of lung cancer patients was based on FOXC2-AC1 expression ;  FOXC2-AC1 directly targets mir-170. ... E, QRT-PCR verified the interference efficiency of miR-170 after transfection of FOXC2-AC1 overexpression vector in H1299 cell lines and after knockout of FOXC2-AC1 in SPCA1 cell lines. 1D and 1D have stretches of surprising similarity. 3E and 4E are **identical** (apart from a horizontal stretch). One explanation is that both papers emerged from the same studio. ![file] Examples of  Hoya s Law .  When 40 or 50 cases of any given cancer are dichotomised into half-groups of high- or low-expression of any given nc-RNA, survival rate for one or both half-groups will drop to 0% at 75 months. , 
 #1 I noted the resemblance between Figs 4E from this paper, and 3E from [Wu et al (2019)] . Especially striking because one of the papers does not otherwise mention RGC17. The most parsimonious explanation is that a single uncredited studio was involved in the preparation of both papers. We should also compare the present 4D *[below]* and 3D *[above]* from Wu et al. ![file] 3 4 of the points are shared. ,