MiR-18a-5p promotes proliferation, migration and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting CPEB3

Objective: The study aims to explore the mechanism of miR-18a-5p targeting CPEB3 gene in regulating the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Differential and survival analyses were conducted on HCC expression profiles from TCGA database to screen out target miRNAs on which targeted prediction was conducted. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expressions of miR-18a-5p and CPEB3. MTT assay examined the proliferation activity, wound healing assay analyzed the migration ability and Transwell assay detected the invasion ability of HCC cells after overexpressing miR-18a-5p.Dual luciferase assay verified the targeting relationship between miR-18a-5p and CPEB3. Meanwhile, MTT, wound healing and Transwellassays determined whether the overexpression of CPEB3 reversed the promoting effect of miR-18a-5p on HCC cells. Results Bioinformatic analysis showed that miR-18a-5p was significantly highly expressed in HCC tissues and its target binding site was found in CPEB3 genewith low expression.The qRT-PCR found that high miR-18a-5p expression was observed in HCC cells, and the expression of CPEB3 was significantly low. Overexpression of miR-18a-5p promoted proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. Dual luciferase assay observed that miR-18a-5p inhibited the expression of CPEB3 while overexpression of CPEB3 reversed the promoting effect of miR-18a-5p on the growth of HCCcells. Conclusion miR-18a-5p promoted the proliferation and migration of HCC cells by inhibiting the expression of CPEB3. The role of miR-18a-5p /CPEB3 in HCCfound in this study provided a new potential target for the prognostic treatment of HCC patients.