MiR-128-3p suppresses breast cancer cellular progression via targeting LIMK1.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women all over the world. MiRNAs are a type of small noncoding RNA that can regulate various cellular processes via binding different target genes in cancer cells. In this study, we found that miR-128-3p could suppress cellular proliferation and motility abilities of breast cancer. In addition, we found that overexpression of miR-128-3p arrested breast cancer cells in G0/G1 phase by affecting expression of CDK4/CDK6/Cyclin D1 and CDK2/Cyclin E1. Furthermore, we confirmed that LIM domain kinase 1 (LIMK1) is a direct target gene of miR-128-3p and that overexpression of miR-128-3p could suppress the expression levels of LIMK1 and Cofilin 1, which is downstream of LIMK1. TCGA clinical database showed that miR-128-3p was highly expressed in breast cancer patients and that high expression of miR-128-3p indicates a better prognosis of breast cancer. Our findings demonstrated that miR-128-3p could regulate cellular progression of breast cancer via regulating the LIMK1/CFL1 signaling pathway, and this new avenue could broaden existing versions of molecular mechanisms in breast cancer and perhaps represent potential novel direction of breast cancer treatment in the future.