Mir-30d suppresses cell proliferation of colon cancer cells by inhibiting cell autophagy and promoting cell apoptosis

MiR-30 family plays an important role in the tumorigenesis of human cancers. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of miR-30d in human colon cancer cell lines and explore the molecular mechanism in the proliferation of colon cancer cells. The expression of miR-30d was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction assay in colon cancer cell lines (HCT15, HCT116, HT-29, DLD-1, and SW480) and the results demonstrated that miR-30d level was significantly decreased in human colon cancer cell lines, compared with normal colon epithelial cell line. Transfection with miR-30d mimics inhibited cell proliferation, and transfection with miR-30d inhibitors significantly promoted cell viability of colon cancer cells. Furthermore, TargetScan analysis predicted that miR-30d interacted with messenger RNA on its 3' untranslated region of ATG5, phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and Beclin1 to negatively regulate cell autophagy in colon cancer cells. Moreover, transfection with miR-30d induced cell arrest at G2/M phase of HT-29 cells. Overexpression of miR-30d mimics inhibited cell viability probably due to the inhibition of cell autophagy and promotion of cell apoptosis. Thus, MiR-30d inhibited cell autophagy by directly targeting messenger RNA of ATG5, phosphoinositide 3-kinase, and Beclin1 and promoted cell apoptosis of human colon cancer cells. It is helpful to clarify the function of miR-30d in tumorigenesis of human cancers.