miR-211 sponges lncRNA MALAT1 to suppress tumor growth and progression through inhibiting PHF19 in ovarian carcinoma.

Accumulating evidence has indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the occurrence and progression of ovarian cancer (OC). However, the function of miRNAs implicated in OC remains unclear. This study investigated the potential role of miR-211 in OC. Gene Expression Omnibus database analysis indicated that miR-211 expression was significantly down-regulated in OC tissues compared with normal specimens. In addition, miR-211 overexpression apparently inhibited proliferation, migration, xenograft growth, and induced apoptosis in HEY-T30 and SKOV3 cells. Moreover, PHF19, a component of the polycomb group of proteins, was found to be a direct target of miR-211 based on the luciferase reporter assay and Western blot analysis. Consistently, survival analysis indicated that high PHF19 expression was associated with shorter survival time in patients with OC. Importantly, silence of PHF19 reduced proliferation, induced cell cycle arrest, promoted apoptosis, suppressed migration, and inhibited xenograft growth in SKOV3 cells. Restoration of PHF19 expression markedly reversed the inhibitory effect of miR-211 on OC. Moreover, our results indicate that the long noncoding RNA MALAT1 could sponge miR-211 as a competing endogenous RNA and potentially up-regulate PHF19 expression, thus facilitating the OC progression. These findings suggest that the MALAT1/miR-211/PHF19 axis may act as a key mediator in OC and provide new insight into the prevention of this disease.-Tao, F., Tian, X., Ruan, S., Shen, M., Zhang, Z. miR-211 sponges lncRNA MALAT1 to suppress tumor growth and progression through inhibiting PHF19 in ovarian carcinoma.