MicroRNA-145 function as a cell growth repressor by directly targeting c-Myc in human ovarian cancer.

MiR-145 is reported to be significantly down-regulated in ovarian cancer. This study was aimed at elucidating the roles of miR-145 in regulating the biological behavior of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells. In this report, we find out that up-regulation of miR-145 in OVCAR-3 and SKOV-3 cells inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis. We show that miR-145 directly target the c-Myc 3'-UTR. Moreover, ectopic expression of c-Myc reduces the inhibition of cell proliferation caused by miR-145 transfection. Cell cycle assay showed that up-regulation of miR-145 reduces S phase population, and restoration of c-Myc can rescue this reduction. These findings indicate that miR-145 inhibits cell proliferation and promotes cell apoptosis by targeting c-Myc 3'-UTR. Therefore, the result indicated that miR- 145 could be used as a potential therapeutic target in ovarian cancer.