Enhanced plasma miR-26a-5p promotes the progression of bladder cancer via targeting PTEN.

The current study aimed to evaluate the expression and specific role of miR-26a-5p in the progression of bladder cancer (BC). Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed to evaluate the level of miR-26a-5p in BC cancer and healthy controls. The present data showed that plasma miR-26a-5p was significantly increased in BC patients. Furthermore, BC tissues exhibited greater levels of miR-26a-5p compared with adjacent non-neoplastic tissues-26a-5p. Compared with BC patients at Ta-T1 stage, the level of miR-26a-5p was significantly elevated in BC patients ≥T2. BC patients at G3 stage demonstrated a higher plasma miR-26a-5p level compared with those at G1/2 stage. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated that miR-26a-5p could differentiate BC patients from controls. Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that plasma miR-26a-5p negatively correlated with survival of BC patients. Dual luciferase reporter assay indicated that miR-26a-5p significantly suppressed the relative luciferase activity of pmirGLO-PTEN-3'UTR compared with the control. In conclusion, the current study indicated novel data that the levels of plasma miR-26a-5p was significantly increased in BC patients. Furthermore, the present study suggested that determination of plasma miR-26a-5p level could help to distinguish BC patients from healthy controls via targeting PTEN.