A qRT-PCR and Gene Functional Enrichment Study Focused on Downregulation of miR-141-3p in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Its Clinicopathological Significance

BACKGROUND The clinical significance of miR-141-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma has not been verified. Therefore, we conducted this study to examine miR-141-3p expression and its clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma and to investigate the functions of its potential targets. METHODS The Cancer Genome Atlas database and the Gene Expression Omnibus database were used to explore the aberrant expression of miR-141-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma. Furthermore, we assessed the miR-141-3p levels in 95 hepatocellular carcinoma tissues with 95 matched adjacent tissues using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Moreover, a target gene prediction analysis of miR-141-3p, a natural language processing analysis for hepatocellular carcinoma using PubMed, and a gene functional enrichment analysis were conducted to search the potential function of miR-141-3p in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma. RESULTS Regarding The Cancer Genome Atlas data, miR-141-3p levels were markedly downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue compared to para- or nontumor tissue (4.6112 [1.7096] vs 5.3053 [1.4254], P = .045). MiR-141-3p expression was reduced in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with a low pathologic T stage ( P = .006), a low grade ( P = .01), elderly hepatocellular carcinoma patients ( P = .001), and male patients with hepatocellular carcinoma ( P = .01) compared with that in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with high pathologic T stages, high grades, young patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and female patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. However, according to the Gene Expression Omnibus database, no significant differences in the expression of miR-141-3p were observed between hepatocellular carcinoma tissue and normal liver tissue ( P = .984). Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction confirmed a similar trend of decreased miR-141-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue (1.7542 [0.8663] vs 2.5562 [1.7913], P = .001) as observed in The Cancer Genome Atlas. In addition, decreased miR-141-3p levels were detected in the multiple tumor nodes group ( P = .004), the metastasis group ( P < .001), and the advanced TNM stage group ( P = .01), compared to the single tumor nodes group, the nonmetastasis group, and the early TNM stage group. Two hundred eighty-two genes were identified from the overlap between the predicted targets and the natural language processing analysis. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analyses revealed several significant biological functions and pathways related to the pathogenesis of cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma. CONCLUSION Downregulation of miR-141-3p might be responsible for the carcinogenesis and aggressiveness of hepatocellular carcinoma. MiR-141-3p may act as an antitumor microRNA, which is essential for hepatocellular carcinoma progression through the regulation of various signaling pathways. Thus, interactions with miR-141-3p may provide a novel strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment in the future.