Malignant astrocytomas are the most common primary brain tumors. The critical characterizes of astrocyomas are their aggressive and infiltrative in the brain, which leads to uncontrollable by conventional forms of therapy. MicroRNAs are small RNAs that had been found to regulate their targets by specific binding to the 3'-untranslated region (3'UTR) of mRNA. Recent advances in understanding the molecular biology of these tumors have revealed that microRNA (miRNA) disruption may play important roles in the pathogenesis of astrocytomas. And some of the miRNA alterations were found in the serum of astrocytoma patients. In this study, we studied the expression profile of miR-128, in the different stages of astrocytoma tissues and two human astrocytoma cell lines, A172 and T98G cells. We found that the levels of miR-128 are decreased in the A172 and T98G cells when compared to normal human astrocyte (NHA). Furthermore, the levels of miR-128 decreased gradually to the pathological stages of astrocytomas. We also identified that TROVE2 is a novel target of miR-128 by the luciferase reporter system. Furthermore, the expression levels of TROVE2 are dramatically increased with the pathological stages increasing. Finally, the levels of TROVE2 are negatively correlated with miR-128 in astrocytoma tissues. Our data provided novel evidence for the miR-128 and TROVE2 in the development of human astrocytomas.
Keywords: Astrocytomas; Grades; MiR-128; TROVE2; mRNA.