MicroRNA‑874 inhibits proliferation and invasion of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells by directly targeting paired box 6.

Studies have demonstrated that a number of microRNAs (miRNAs) are dysregulated in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and alterations in their expression may affect the onset and progression of PDAC. Therefore, the expression patterns, biological functions and associated molecular mechanisms of miRNAs in PDAC should be elucidated for the development of novel therapeutic methods. Previous studies reported significant miRNA‑874 (miR‑874) dysregulation in multiple types of human cancer. However, the expression pattern, possible roles and underlying mechanisms of miR‑874 in PDAC remain to be elucidated. This study evaluated miR‑874 expression in PDAC and examined its biological functions and underlying mechanism of action in PDAC progression. miR‑874 expression was downregulated in PDAC tissues and cell lines. Functional experiments demonstrated that upregulation of miR‑874 inhibited cell proliferation and invasion in PDAC. Additionally, paired box 6 (PAX6) was predicted as a putative target of miR‑874 using bioinformatics analysis. Further experiments demonstrated that PAX6 may be the direct target gene of miR‑874 in PDAC. PAX6 knockdown exhibited similar inhibitory effects to miR‑874 overexpression in PDAC cells. In addition, restored PAX6 expression may reverse the suppressive roles of miR‑874 overexpression in PDAC cells. The results demonstrated that miR‑874 may serve tumor suppressive roles in PDAC by directly targeting PAX6. Therefore, miR‑874 may exhibit potential applications for treatment of patients with PDAC.