Overexpression of microRNA-936 suppresses non-small cell lung cancer cell proliferation and invasion via targeting E2F2.

MicroRNA (miR)-936 has been reported to inhibit the cell cycle and glioma cell proliferation. However, the roles of miR-936 in other human tumors remain largely unknown. In the present study, it was indicated that miR-936 was significantly downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Results also indicated that miR-936 was downregulated in NSCLC cell lines compared with 16HBE cells. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that overexpression of miR-936 significantly inhibited the proliferation, cell cycle progression and invasion of NSCLC cells. Notably, E2F2 was identified as a target gene of miR-936 in NSCLC cells. The results indicated that E2F2 was upregulated in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, and its expression was negatively correlated with that of miR-936 in NSCLC tissues. Overexpression of miR-936 significantly reduced the protein expression levels of E2F2 in NSCLC cells. Furthermore, restoration of E2F2 rescued the proliferation and invasion of NSCLC cells transfected with miR-936 mimics. To the best of our knowledge, the present findings demonstrated for the first time that miR-936 suppressed NSCLC progression by directly targeting E2F2.