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 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.
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.