Open AccesshnRNP A1 and hnRNP C associate with miR‐17 and miR‐18 in thyroid cancer cells
Author(s) -
Santos Maria Gabriela Pereira,
Gatti da Silva Guilherme Henrique,
Nagasse Helder Yudi,
Fuziwara Cesar Seigi,
Kimura Edna T.,
Coltri Patricia Pereira
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
febs open bio
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.718
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 2211-5463
DOI - 10.1002/2211-5463.13409
Subject(s) - microrna , heterogeneous ribonucleoprotein particle , heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein , biology , rna splicing , downregulation and upregulation , gene , three prime untranslated region , cancer research , messenger rna , genetics , microbiology and biotechnology , untranslated region , rna
Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are essential players in the regulation of gene expression. The majority of the twenty different hnRNP proteins act through the modulation of pre‐mRNA splicing. Most have been shown to regulate the expression of critical genes for the progression of tumorigenic processes and were also observed to be overexpressed in several types of cancer. Moreover, these proteins were described as essential components for the maturation of some microRNAs (miRNAs). In the human genome, over 70% of miRNAs are transcribed from introns; therefore, we hypothesized that regulatory proteins involved with splicing could be important for their maturation. Increased expression of the miR‐17‐92 cluster has already been shown to be related to the development of many cancers, such as thyroid, lung, and lymphoma. In this article, we show that overexpression of hnRNP A1 and hnRNP C in BCPAP thyroid cancer cells directly affects the expression of miR‐17‐92 miRNAs. Both proteins associate with the 5′‐end of this cluster, strongly precipitate miRNAs miR‐17 and miR‐18a and upregulate the expression of miR‐92a . Upon overexpression of these hnRNPs, BCPAP cells also show increased proliferation, migration, and invasion rates, suggesting upregulation of these proteins and miRNAs is related to an enhanced tumorigenic phenotype.