MiR-381 inhibits migration and invasion in human gastric carcinoma through downregulatedting SOX4

Aberrant expression of microRNAs (miRs) serves essential roles in the generation and progression of various types of human cancer. In the present study, the expression and biological functions of miR-381 in human gastric carcinoma (GC) were focused upon. The results of reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that the expression of miR-381 was significantly downregulated in GC tissue samples. Furthermore, low expression of miR-381 was identified to be associated with lymphatic metastasis and advanced tumor-node-metastasis stage (III+IV). Upregulation of miR-381 inhibited the migration and invasion of GC SGC-7901 cells through SRY-Box 4 (SOX4)-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Finally, long non-coding (lnc) RNA-taurine upregulatedted 1 (non-protein coding) (TUG1) was confirmed as a negatively regulator of miR-381 expression in SGC-7901 cells. Taken together, the results of the current study indicate that the downregulation of miR-381 by lncRNA-TUG1 promoted the metastasis of GC cells by inhibiting SOX4. Thus, targeting miR-381 may be a novel therapeutic option for the treatment of patients with GC.