Our results indicated that rs4636297 in miR-126 and rs11614913 in miR-196a2 play an important role only in the initiation of cervical cancer not in the development of CIN to cervical cancer.
Real-time RT-PCR analyses confirmed the expression of these four miRNAs in frozen tissues from cervical cancer. miR-126-3p, -20b-5p, -451a, and -144-3p in cervical mucus are promising biomarkers for cervical cancer and high-grade CINs.
By bioinformatic prediction with online databases and verification using luciferase reporter assay, we then identified that Bcl2l2 is a direct target of miR-126-5p in cervical cancer cells.
The regulatory landscape of these interactions in cervical cancer is now investigated by Huang et al. in this issue of Oncogene, who demonstrate that the microRNA miR-126 is downregulated during cancer progression, particularly in stromal cells.
The study suggests a cancer stroma cross talk induced repression of miR-126 and upregulation of ADM, and probably other proangiogenic factors, to facilitate angiogenesis and invasion growth of cervical cancer.