MiR-145 inhibits tumor angiogenesis and growth by N-RAS and VEGF.

MiR-145 is known as a tumor suppressor in numerous human cancers. However, its role in tumor angiogenesis remains poorly defined. In this study, we found that miR-145 was significantly downregulated in breast cancer tissues by using 106 cases of normal and cancer tissues as well as in breast cancer cells. MiR-145 exhibited inhibitory role in tumor angiogenesis, cell growth and invasion and tumor growth through the post-transcriptional regulation of the novel targets N-RAS and VEGF-A. In addition, we provide evidence that the expression levels of miR-145 correlate inversely with malignancy stages of breast tumors, although there is no association between miR-145 levels and hormone receptor levels in breast cancer. Taken together, these results demonstrate that miR-145 plays important inhibitory role in breast cancer malignancy by targeting N-RAS and VEGF-A, which may be potential therapeutic and diagnostic targets.