miR-495 inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion and induces apoptosis via inhibiting PBX3 in melanoma cells

Introduction

Human melanoma represents one of the most common and aggressive form of skin tumor.¹ The incidence of melanoma has increased in the past two decades, and there are over 75,000 newly diagnosed melanoma cases each year.² Although there is a great improvement in the treatment of melanoma, the prognosis of melanoma is still poor, with <20% of 5-year survival rates for patients with metastatic melanoma.³ Moreover, melanoma is known to be recalcitrant to surgery and standard antitumor regimens such as cytotoxic chemo-, radio-, and immunotherapies.¹ Therefore, it is of vital significance to develop new preventive and therapeutic strategies to cure melanoma.

In recent years, amounting evidence indicated that microRNAs (miRNAs) play an indispensable role in the development and prognosis of melanoma.⁴ miRNAs are involved in posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression by directly binding to the 3′UTR of mRNA.⁵ miRNAs are known to involve in different biological activities such as development, inflammation, immune response, hematopoiesis, and tumorigenesis.⁶ Aberrant expression of miRNAs can affect the initiation, development, and progression of cancers through the regulation of cell cycle progress, proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion.⁷ It was reported that miR-495 is aberrantly expressed in many cancers, such as osteosarcoma, lung cancer, bladder cancer, esophageal cancer, and glioma.^8–12

Amounting evidence indicated that miR-495 is involved in the tumorigenesis of various cancers. For example, abnormal expression of miR-495 is associated with the progression of gastric cancer.¹³ miR-495 could also be used as a prognostic predictor in medulloblastoma.¹⁴ miR-495 is able to inhibit cell growth and migration in endometrial cancer through the downregulation of FOXC1.¹⁵ However, the expression patterns as well as specific functions and underlying mechanisms of miR-495 in melanoma is still unknown.

The present study aimed to investigate the biological function and molecular mechanism of miR-495 in melanoma. We found that miR-495 was downregulated in melanoma tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of miR-495 can inhibit proliferation and metastasis of melanoma cells. Furthermore, pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor 3 (PBX3) is downregulated by miR-495 in melanoma cells, suggesting that miR-495 might play an important role in melanoma tumorigenesis.

Materials and methods

Clinical samples

Melanoma tissue samples were obtained from patients in Yinzhou People’s Hospital (Ningbo, China). Both tumor and normal tissues were histologically confirmed by pathologists. Written informed consent was obtained from each patient, and the research protocols were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Yinzhou People’s Hospital.

Cell culture and transfection

Human melanoma cell lines (A7, WM-115, MeWo, MEL-28 A375) were purchased from Shanghai Cell bank (Shanghai, China) and maintained in RPMI-1640 medium (Hyclone, Pittsburgh, PA, USA), containing 10% fetal bovine serum (Hyclone, Pittsburgh, PA, USA), 100 μg/mL penicillin, and 100 U/mL streptomycin (Sigma-Aldrich Co., St Louis, MO, USA). Primary human epidermal melanocytes (PEM) was a generous gift from Dr Jun Xu (Soochow University, Jiangsu Province, China) and was maintained in serum- and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-free melanocyte growth medium M2 (PromoCell, Heidelberg, Germany). All cells were cultured in a humidified incubator at 37°C with 5% CO₂.

The miR-495 mimic, negative control (miR-NC), negative control inhibitor (NC inhibitor), miR-495 inhibitor, small interfering RNA (siRNA) against PBX3 (si-PBX3) and negative control (si-NC) were synthesized by Genepharm (Shanghai, China). Transfection of miR-495 mimic, miR-control, NC inhibitor, miR-495 inhibitor, si-PBX3, si-control was performed using Lipofectamine 2000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) according to the manufacturer’s protocol.

RNA purification and quantitative RT-PCR

Total RNA was isolated from human tissues and melanoma cells using Trizol reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific) according to the manufacturer’s instruction. Quantitative measurement of miR-495 and PBX3 mRNA was analyzed by TaqMan MicroRNA assays (Thermo Fisher Scientific), and U6 and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were used as internal controls. The relative expression levels were calculated by comparing Ct values of samples with those of the reference, and all data were normalized to the controls.

MTT assay

Cell viability was detected by MTT assay. Briefly, cells were seeded in 96-well plate at a density of 5,000 cells/well. After treatment, 50 μL of MTT solution (5 mg/mL) (Sigma-Aldrich Co.) was added. After 4 hours of incubation, the culture was removed and 200 μL of DMSO was added to each well. The absorbance of the solutions was measured on a BioTek microplate reader at 595 nm. Wells without cells were used as blanks.

Clonogenic assay

For the clonogenic assay, cells were seeded into 6-well culture plates at a density of 200 cells/well. After 2 weeks, the plates were stained for the formation of cell colonies with crystal violet in 70% ethanol and counted.

Wound healing assay

Cells were seeded into a 24-well plate with 90% confluency. An artificial wound was made with a 200 μL pipette tip in the center of the confluent cell monolayer. The cells were cultured for another 24 hours, and the closure of the wound in each group was evaluated under microscope.

Cell invasion assay

About 1×10⁵ cells were plated on the upper Transwell chambers (Costar; Corning Incorporated, Corning, NY, USA) with Matrigel (BD Bioscience, San Jose, CA, USA). After culture for 24 hours, the cells were fixed using methanol, and the upper chamber cells were removed. The chambers were stained with 1% crystal violet. Finally, the number of cells that migrated across the membrane were counted.

Apoptosis assay

Quantification of apoptosis was determined by Cell Death Detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland). Briefly, after transfection for 24 hours, the cells were collected and lysed. Mouse antibodies against single-strand DNA and histones (H1, H2a, H2b, H3, and H4) specifically bind both mononucleosomes and oligonucleosomes derived from apoptotic cells. Biotinylated anti-histone antibodies then fixed the antibody–nucleosome complexes to the streptavidin-coated microtiter plate. The anti-DNA antibodies were conjugated with horseradish peroxidase, reacting with the substrate 2,2V-azino-di(3-ethylbenzthiazolinsulfonate) to form a colored product. The addition of stop solution changed the color to yellow, the intensity of which was proportional to the number of nucleosomes in the sample. The absorbance was measured by a microplate reader at a wavelength of 405 nm. The rate of apoptosis was evaluated by assessing the enrichment of nucleosome in the cytoplasm, which was determined according to the manufacturer’s instruction.

Caspase-3 activity assay

Transfected cells were seeded into 96-well plate. Ac-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-paranitroanilide (Ac-DEVD-pNA) (10 μL) (Beyotime Biotechnology, Beijing, China) for caspase-3 was added to each well, and the plates were incubated at 37°C for 6 hours. Caspase-3 activity was evaluated at 405 nm using a microplate reader (Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Hercules, CA, USA).

Luciferase reporter assay

The potential miR-495 binding sites in PBX3 3′UTR were predicted by TargetScan 7.1. Sequences containing wild-type (PBX3-wt) or mutant (PBX3-mut) seed region of PBX were synthesized and cloned into luciferase reporter plasmid (pMIR-REPORT) (Promega Corporation, Fitchburg, WI, USA). The PBX3-wt or PBX3-mut plasmids and miR-495 or miR-control were cotransfected using Lipofectamine 2000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Twenty-four hours after transfection, activities of firefly and renilla luciferase were measured using the Dual Luciferase Assay (Promega Corporation) according to the manufacturer’s instruction. All luciferase assays were carried out in triplicate.

Western blot assay

Cells were lysed using the CHAPS buffer purchased from the Beyotime Biotechnology. Each 20 μg of protein was separated on 10% SDS-PAGE gel and transferred onto a PVDF membrane (EMD Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). Primary antibodies against the following were used at 4°C overnight: PBX3 (Abcam, Burlingame, CA, USA), GAPDH (Sigma-Aldrich Co.), anti-rabbit, and anti-mouse horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated secondary antibodies (Sigma-Aldrich Co.) were used. Signals were visualized by enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) reagent (Pierce, Rockford, IL, USA). Densitometric analysis was performed with Quantity One software (Bio-Rad Laboratories).

Statistical analyses

All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 21.0 software (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). All measurement data were presented by mean ± SD. One-way factor analysis of variance was chosen for comparing between multiple groups, and student’s t-test was used for comparing between two groups. P<0.05 was considered to be significantly different.

Results

miR-495 is downregulated in human melanoma tissues and cell lines

We first examined the expression levels of miR-495 in human melanoma tissues. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed on 15 pairs of melanoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues. As indicated in Figure 1A, the expression levels of miR-495 were significantly downregulated in melanoma tissues compared with the matched normal tissues. Moreover, miR-495 expression levels were also downregulated in the melanoma cell lines (A7, WM-115, MeWo, SK-MEL-28, A375) compared with the PEM (Figure 1B). These findings indicate that miR-495 may function as a tumor suppressor in melanoma.

Figure 1 miR-495 was downregulated in melanoma tissues and cell lines. (A) qPCR analysis of miR-495 expression in 15 paired melanoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues. (B) qPCR analysis of miR-495 expression in primary human epidermal melanocytes (PEM) and various melanoma cell lines (A7, WM-115, MeWo, SK-MEL-28, A375). Data are presented as mean ± SD (n=3). Each experiment was performed in triplicate. *P<0.05, ***P<0.001. Abbreviations: N, normal tissue; T, tumor tissue.

miR-495 inhibits melanoma cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation in vitro

Then the functional roles of miR-495 in A375 and MeWo cells were explored. qPCR was performed to confirm that miR-495 expression was upregulated or downregulated in A375 and MeWo cells after transfection with miR-495 mimics or miR-495 inhibitors, respectively (Figure 2A). MTT assay indicated that increased expression levels of miR-495 markedly inhibited the viability of A375 and MeWo cells compared with the control group (Figure 2B). Meanwhile, inhibition of miR-495 by inhibitors promoted the viability of A375 and MeWo cells (Figure 2B). Next, wound healing assay and invasion assay were performed to evaluate the effect of miR-495 expression on the migration and invasion of A375 and MeWo cells in vitro. We found that overexpression of miR-495 markedly repressed cell invasion and migration in A375 and MeWo cells compared with the control group; consistently, inhibition of miR-495 by miR-495 inhibitor showed the opposite effects (Figure 2C and D). Moreover, the colony formation assay indicated a similar trend, with significantly reduced or enhanced clonogenic ability of cells transfected with miR-495 mimic or miR-495 inhibitor, respectively (Figure 2E). These results indicate that miR-495 may function as a tumor inhibitor via inhibiting cell proliferation, invasion, and colony formation in melanoma.

Figure 2 miR-495 inhibits melanoma cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation in vitro. (A) A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with miR-495 mimics, negative control (miR-NC), negative control inhibitor (NC inhibitor), or miR-495 inhibitor for 24 hours, then the expression of miR-495 was quantified by qRT-PCR. (B) miR-495 mimics, miR-NC, NC inhibitor or miR-495 inhibitor-transfected A375, and MeWo cells were subjected to MTT assay. (C) miR-495 mimics, miR-NC, NC inhibitor or miR-495 inhibitor-transfected A375, and MeWo cells were subjected to wound healing assay. (D) miR-495 mimics, miR-NC, NC inhibitor or miR-495 inhibitor-transfected A375, and MeWo cells were subjected to transwell assay. (E) miR-495 mimics, miR-NC, NC inhibitor or miR-495 inhibitor-transfected A375, and MeWo cells were subjected to colony formation assay. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n=3). All experiments were performed three times, and representative images are presented. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.

Overexpression of miR-495 promoted cell apoptosis in melanoma cell lines

Then we examined whether miR-495 affects the process of apoptosis. We applied a Cell Death Detection ELISA kit (Hoffman-La Roche Ltd.) which measures cytoplasmic histone-complexed DNA fragments (nucleosomes) produced in cytoplasm of the apoptotic cells during apoptosis as described earlier.¹⁶ As indicated in Figure 3A, transfection of miR-495 mimics markedly increased the apoptosis rate compared with miR-NC mimics. To further assess whether miR-495 is involved in the process of apoptosis, the caspase-3 activity in A375 and MeWo cells was detected. The overexpression of miR-495 markedly enhanced caspase-3 activity after 24 hours, as compared with the NC cells (Figure 3B). Moreover, proteins that regulated apoptosis were determined by Western blot. As shown in Figure 3C and D, the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl, were downregulated while the pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, Bax and cleaved caspase-3, were upregulated after overexpression of miR-495. In addition, the release of mitochondrial proteins like Smac/DIABLO and cytochrome c into cytosol was increased after overexpression of miR-495 (Figure 3C and D).

Figure 3 Overexpression of miR-495 promotes apoptosis in melanoma cells. A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with miR-NC or miR-495 mimics for 24 cells. (A) Apoptosis rates were analyzed. (B) Caspase-3 activity was analyzed. (C) Total proteins were subjected to Western blot analysis with indicated antibodies. (D) Western blot results were quantitatively analyzed. Data are presented as the mean ± SD (n=3). All experiments were performed three times, and representative images are presented. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.

MiR-495 directly targets PBX3 and inhibits its expression in vitro

To understand the molecular mechanisms by which miR-495 affects melanoma cell progression, bioinformatic analysis (TargetScan, http://www.targetscan.org) indicated that PBX3, an important oncogene, can be directly targeted by miR-495 (Figure 4A). Moreover, a previous study indicated that the expression of PBX3 is dysregulated in melanoma cells.¹⁷ To test the specific regulation via the predicated binding sites, we constructed a reporter vector that consists of the luciferase coding sequence followed by the 3′UTR of PBX3. PBX3-wt or PBX3-mut sequence within the putative binding sites was cloned into the pMIR-REPORT vector. Cotransfection experiments showed that miR-495 significantly decreased the luciferase activity of PBX3-wt but not PBX3-mut (Figure 4B).

Figure 4 Pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor 3 (PBX3) is a direct target of miR-495 in melanoma cells. (A) Human PBX3 3′UTR binding site for miR-495. (B) miR-495 targeted the wild-type but not the mutant 3′UTR of PBX3. (C) Overexpression of miR-495 repressed PBX3 mRNA expression level (left) and protein level (middle and right) in A375 and MeWo cells. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n=3). All experiments were performed three times, and representative images are presented. **P<0.01. Abbreviations: mut, mutant; NC, negative control; wt, wild-type.

To further confirm that PBX3 is a target of miR-495, miR-495 mimics (miR-495) or miR-NC was transfected into melanoma cells. Transfection of miR-495 mimics resulted in significant reduction of PBX3 protein and mRNA expression by Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction ( qRT-PCR), respectively (Figure 4C). Taken together, our data demonstrated that PBX3 was a direct target of miR-495.

Knockdown of PBX3 inhibits melanoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion

To investigate the functional roles of PBX3 in melanoma cells, we silenced PBX3 in melanoma cells by PBX3-specific small interfering RNAs (si-PBX3) and found that si-PBX3 could significantly reduce PBX3 mRNA (Figure 5A) and protein (Figure 5B) levels in both A375 and MeWo cells. MTT assay showed that PBX3 knockdown significantly inhibited cell growth in melanoma cells (Figure 5C). Moreover, wound healing assay and transwell assay revealed that knockdown of PBX3 significantly repressed the migration and invasion of melanoma cells (Figure 5D and E). These results suggest that miR-495 mediates the viability, migration, and invasion, at least in part, through the regulation of PBX3.

Figure 5 Silencing of pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor 3 (PBX3)-inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in melanoma cells. (A) A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with negative control siRNA (si-NC) or siRNA against PBX3 (si-PBX3) for 24 hours, the mRNA expression levels of PBX3 in both the cells were examined by RT-qPCR and (B) the protein levels of PBX3 in both the cells were examined by Western blot. (C) A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with si-NC or si-PBX3 for indicated time, and cell proliferation was analyzed by MTT assay. (D) A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with si-NC or by transwell assay. (E) Cell migration was analyzed by si-PBX3 for 24 hours, and cell invasion was analyzed by wound healing assay. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n=3). All experiments were performed three times, and representative images are presented. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Abbreviation: NC, negative control.

Silencing of PBX3 promotes apoptosis in melanoma cells

Then we determined whether PBX3 also affects the process of apoptosis in melanoma cells. The results showed that PBX3 siRNA significantly increased the apoptosis and activity of caspase-3 compared to si-NC transfected cells (Figure 6A and B). These were similar to the variations that were induced by miR-495 overexpression, indicating a similar effect of PBX3 knockdown and miR-495 overexpression. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of silencing of PBX3 on proteins that were involved in apoptosis. We found that downregulation of PBX3 lead to an increase of cleaved caspase-3 and Bax while Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl were decreased (Figure 6C and D). Meanwhile, the release of mitochondrial proteins like Smac/DIBALO and cytochrome c into cytosol was also increased after knockdown of PBX3. These results suggest that miR-495 affects apoptosis, at least in part, through the regulation of PBX3.

Figure 6 Knockdown of pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor 3 (PBX3) promotes apoptosis in melanoma cells. Melanoma A375 and MeWo cells were transfected with negative control siRNA (si-NC) or siRNA against PBX3 (si-PBX3) for 24 hours. (A) Cell apoptosis rates were analyzed. (B) Caspase-3 activity was analyzed. (C) Total lysates were subjected to Western blot analysis with the indicated antibodies. (D) Western blot results were quantitatively analyzed. Data are presented as mean ± SD (n=3). All experiments were performed three times, and representative images are presented. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Abbreviation: GAPDH, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Discussion

Amounting evidence indicated that miRNAs play essential roles in the progression of tumor. Previous studies have identified several miRNAs that are involved in the development of melanoma.¹⁸ Peres et al indicated that miR-137 expression was remarkably downregulated in human melanoma tissues and cells and inhibited melanoma cell migration via targeting TBX3.¹⁹ MiR-769 was upregulated in melanoma tissues and cell lines and able to promote melanoma cell proliferation.²⁰ In the present study, we found that miR-495 was significantly downregulated in human melanoma tissues and cells. Our findings may add a new miRNA marker in the diagnosis of human melanoma.

Downregulation of miR-495 has been found in various human cancers, such as gastric cancer, lung cancer, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).^21–23 The function of miR-495 in human melanoma remains elusive. Thus, to explore the potential role of miR-495 in melanoma, in vitro experiments were carried out. Our data showed that overexpression of miR-495, functions as a tumor inhibitor, can inhibit cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and colony formation and can induce apoptosis in melanoma cells. These findings are consistent with the previous studies in which miR-495 also functions as a tumor suppressor.^11,15,21,23 However, one study also found that miR-495 was upregulated and acts as an oncogene in KRAS-positive adenocarcinomas.²⁴ Overexpression of miR-495 could promote the invasion of breast cancer stem cells.²⁵ This discrepancy may be because the main targets of miR-495 are varied in different cells. Further studies are required to investigate the mechanisms why miR-495 acts as tumor inhibitor in some cancers and oncogene in others.

Several genes have been identified and validated to be the targets of miR-495 in different cancers.^11,21,25 Here, we found that PBX3 is a direct target of miR-495 as evidenced by the findings that overexpression of miR-495 repressed mRNA and protein levels of PBX3 and reduced the luciferase activity of the wide-type PBX3-3′UTR. PBX3 is a member of the PBX family of three amino acid loop extension class homeodomain transcription factors.²⁶ PBX family members regulate the transcription of downstream target genes through the interactions with homeobox, thereby enhancing its DNA-binding affinity.²⁷ Previous studies indicated that PBX3 played vital role in various human cancers. For example, PBX3 could promote invasion and metastasis by inducing epithelial–mesenchymal transition in gastric cancer.²⁸ PBX3 was found to be highly expressed in AML samples and essential for leukemia stem cell maintenance.²⁹ Moreover, PBX3 was found to enhance migration and invasion of colorectal cancer cells through the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular regulated protein kinase (MAPK/ERK) signaling pathway.³⁰ PBX3 was subjected to the regulation of other miRNAs such as miR-33a-3p, miR-144-3p, and miR-497.^30–32 Here, we identified PBX3 as a direct target of miR-495 in melanoma. Our finding is quite similar to a previous study in which PBX3 is a target of miR-495 in leukemia cells.²³ We also found that silencing of PBX3 is phenotypically similar to miR-495-induced effects. These results suggest that miR-495 exerts antitumor effects in melanoma at least partly by targeting PBX3.

In summary, the present study investigated the biological functions of miR-495 in melanoma for the first time and found that miR-495 was downregulated in melanoma tissues and cell lines. In vitro experiments showed that overexpression of miR-495 could suppress malignant progression of melanoma by directly targeting PBX3, suggesting that miR-495 may function as tumor suppressor in melanoma. These findings implied that miR-495 might be applied as potential therapeutic target for melanoma.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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