Downregulation of miR-95 in gastric cancer promotes EMT via regulation of Slug, thereby promoting migration and invasion

miR-95 has been revealed to be aberrantly expressed in multiple types of cancer and to regulate tumor development. Moreover, miR-95 has been revealed to be downregulated in gastric cancer. However, the detailed function of miR-95 in gastric cancer has remained largely unknown. In the present study, we found that miR-95 was downregulated in 63 pairs of gastric cancer tissue samples and adjacent normal tissue samples, as well as gastric cancer cell lines. Additionally, the expression of miR-95 was associated with tumor size, tumor‑node‑metastasis (TNM) stage and lymph node metastasis. Various functional experiments, including Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, wound healing and Transwell assays were used to explore the effect of miR-95 on cell proliferation and migration as well as invasion, respectively. Overexpression of miR-95 significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Moreover, miR-95 inhibited EMT by directly binding the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of Slug. Therefore, miR-95 may be used as a novel therapeutic target for suppressing gastric cancer growth and metastasis.