Affiliations: [a] Department of Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215000, China | [b] Department of Neurosurgery, Quzhou People’s Hospital in Zhejiang Province, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, China | [c] Department of Pathology, Fujian Cancer Hospital, Fujian Medical University Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian 350014, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding authors: Xu Cao, Department of Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow University, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: cao_xu1982@163.com.
Note: [1] Hong-Liang Xia and Yao Lv are the co-first authors.
Abstract: Neuroblastoma is a brain malignancy of childhood and accounts for 7–10% of childhood cancers, leading to approximately 15% of pediatric cancer deaths. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of short (about 18–25 nucleotides), noncoding and single stranded endogenous RNAs, which complementarily bind to the 3’ untranslated regions of their target genes. Recently, glutamine metabolism has been recognized as an important nutrition source for tumor cells, and hence targeting glutamine metabolism could benefit to development of anti-cancer agents. In this study, we investigate the roles of miR-513c in human neuroblastoma. We report miR-513c is significantly downregulated in human neuroblastoma tissues compared with their adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, miR-513c is significantly downregulated in neuroblastoma cell lines compared with normal neuroblast cells. Overexpression of miR-513c suppresses neuroblastoma cells’ migration, invasion, and proliferation. We demonstrate the glutaminase (GLS) is a direct target of miR-513c in human neuroblastoma cells. In addition, we found restoration of GLS expression recovered the neuroblastoma cells’ migration, invasion, and proliferation. In summary, this study illustrates a miR-513c mediated neuroblastoma cells suppression, providing a new aspect on the miRNA-based therapeutic approach for the treatments of neuroblastoma.
