In Silico Evaluation of miR-124 and its Targets in Metastatic Tumor Samples of Lung Cancer

Background and Aim: Lung cancer is one of the malignancies with a highmortality rate. Despite enormous developments in lung cancer treatment,metastasis still prevents a successful treatment. MicroRNAs (miRNA) areNon-coding RNAs with 18-22nt length, dysregulation of which has beenshown to play a pivotal role in many pathological processes such ascancer. Recent studies indicate the outstanding role of miRNAs in themetastasis of cancer. In this study, we aim to predict the role of miR-124which functions as a tumor suppressor and its target genes in metastasisof lung cancer.Methods: The changes in expression levels of genes (GSE5364) inmetastatic lung tumor samples versus the normal adjacent samples wereanalyzed using GEO2R algorithms. On the other hand, targeting genes ofmiR-124 were found using miRTarbase, Then the mutual genes betweenthe two groups were found via R programming-(R project).Results: Upregulation of some of the target genes of miR-124, for instance,two transcription factors such as KLF4 and FOXA2 observed in metastatictumor samples in comparison to normal ones. KLF4 involves in the differentiation of epithelial cells and contributes to the down-regulationof p53/TP53 transcription, and FOXA2 is a known transcription factor fora number of oncogenes in cancer. According to our findings, it could beinteresting to follow this relationship experimentally.Conclusion: FOXA2 and KLF4 as examples of miR-124 targets might actas oncogenic transcription factors which are frequently upregulated incancers. Moreover, they are related with FoxO signaling pathway whichhas an important role in metastasis of lung cancer.

Keywords:

miR-124 , Lung cancer , Metastasis