MicroRNA-381 serves as a prognostic factor and inhibits migration and invasion in non-small cell lung cancer by targeting LRH-1.

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that aberrant miRNAs were involved in carcinogenesis and tumor progression by regulating oncogenes or tumor suppressor expression. Dysregulation of miR-381 has been reported in different tumors. However, the clinical roles and underlying mechanism in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains to be elucidated. We found the expression of miR-381 was significantly downregulated in both NSCLC tissues and cell lines. Clinical analysis revealed the reduced miR-381 was obviously associated with advanced TNM stage and lymph node metastasis. Moreover, we disclosed that miR-381 was a novel independent prognostic marker for predicting 5-year survival of NSCLC patients. The ectopic overexpression of miR-381 inhibited cell migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Notably, miR-381 could modulate LRH-1 by directly binding to its 3'-UTR. In clinical samples of NSCLC, miR-381 inversely correlated with LRH-1 expression, which performed positive roles in NSCLC migration and invasion. Alteration of LRH-1 expression at least partially abolished the migration and invasion of miR-381 on NSCLC cells. Here, we identified LRH-1 as a functional target of miR-381 in NSCLC. In conclusion, our data indicated that miR-381 inhibited migration and invasion of NSCLC by targeting LRH-1, and may represent a novel potential therapeutic target and prognostic marker for NSCLC.