MicroRNA-152 regulates immune response via targeting B7-H1 in gastric carcinoma

// Yaxin Wang 2 , Di Wang 1 , Gengchen Xie 1 , Yuping Yin 1 , Ende Zhao 1 , Kaixiong Tao 1 , Ruidong Li 1 1 Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China 2 Department of Critical Care Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China Correspondence to: Kaixiong Tao, email: tao_kaixiongg@yahoo.com Ruidong Li, email: liruidonghust@163.com Keywords: gastric cancer, microRNA-152, B7-H1, immune response Received: December 19, 2016 Accepted: February 20, 2017 Published: March 06, 2017 ABSTRACT MiR-152 has been reported may be involved in carcinogenesis in gastric cancer. However, its role has not been comprehensively investigated in gastric cancer. We found miR-152 in human gastric cancer tissues were significantly lower than that in matched adjacent normal tissues. Meanwhile, lower miR-152 was also found in gastric cancer cell lines. The stage, tumor size and lymph node metastasis rate were significant higher in low–miR-152 group in clinical patients. Furthermore, there was a marked correlation between the levels of miR-152 and B7-H1 mRNA in gastric cancer tissues. Mechanistically, miR-152 directly bind to B7-H1 3′ untranslated region in gastric cancer cell and inhibited B7-H1 expression. Functional study demonstrated that elevation of miR-152 enhanced T cells proliferation and effector cytokines production via inhibiting B7-H1/PD-1 pathway. In conclusion, our work identified a novel mechanism by which immune response is increased by expression of miR-152 via targeting B7-H1. MiR-152 may be a potential therapeutic approach for gastric cancer.