MicroRNA-429 inhibits cancer cell proliferation and migration by targeting the AKT1 in melanoma.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs; miR) have been proven to act as both oncogenes and tumor suppressors. However, the mechanism of action of miR429 in melanoma cells remains to be elusive. The present study aims to explain the functional role and mechanism of miR429 in the pathogenesis of melanoma. In our study, we have demonstrated that has-miRNA429 (miR429) is a tumor suppressor in melanoma cells. Luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that the overexpression of miR429 reduced the transcriptional activity of AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT1). Furthermore, the results showed that the mRNA and protein expression levels of AKT1 were downregulated in the melanoma cell lines when miR429 was overexpressed according to qRT-PCR and western bolt, indicating MicroRNA-429 may directly target AKT1 in melanoma. In vivo, overexpression miR-429 could obviously enhance the inhibition effect of tumor size and weight in the nude mice. Taken together, our findings suggest that novel miR429-regulated pathway may serve as new insights into melanoma oncogenesis and metastasis.