@Article{096504016X14791715355957,
AUTHOR = {Yangjing Chen, Shaoqiang Zhang, Ruimin Zhao, Qian Zhao, Ting Zhang},
TITLE = {Upregulated miR-9-3p Promotes Cell Growth and Inhibits Apoptosis  in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma by Targeting BLCAP},
JOURNAL = {Oncology Research},
VOLUME = {25},
YEAR = {2017},
NUMBER = {8},
PAGES = {1215--1222},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/or/v25n8/56906},
ISSN = {1555-3906},
ABSTRACT = {Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a neuroendocrine cancer derived from parafollicular C cells in the 
thyroid gland. It has great interest as a research focus because of its unusual genetic, clinical, and prognostic 
characteristics. However, the pathogenesis in MTC is not completely clear. We investigated the role of miR-
9-3p and bladder cancer-associated protein (BLCAP) in MTC TT cells. First, miR-9-3p expression was upregulated in human MTC tissues and TT cells and compared to the control by RT-PCR. Flow cytometric analysis 
indicated that the cell cycle progression in TT cells was significantly inhibited by the miR-9-3p inhibitor but 
was increased by the miR-9-3p mimic. On the contrary, the apoptosis of TT cells was significantly increased 
by the miR-9-3p inhibitor and suppressed by the miR-9-3p mimic. A similar change pattern was observed in 
the expression of apoptosis-regulated protein caspase 3 induced by the miR-9-3p mimic or inhibitor in TT cells. 
We then identified that BLCAP is a target of miR-9-3p by bioinformatic prediction and luciferase reporter 
assay. The expression of BLCAP was also significantly downregulated by the miR-9-3p mimic while being 
upregulated by the miR-9-3p inhibitor in TT cells. Furthermore, we confirmed that the inhibited apoptosis of 
TT cells induced by the miR-9-3p mimic was enhanced by BLCAP overexpression. The levels of apoptosis 
were strongly decreased by BLCAP silencing in TT cells, which were not further influenced by the miR-9-3p 
inhibitor. In summary, upregulated miR-9-3p has a positive role in human MTC progression by regulating the 
growth and apoptosis of cancer cells via targeting BLCAP. This might represent a possible diagnosis or therapeutic target for MTC.},
DOI = {10.3727/096504016X14791715355957}
}