MicroRNA-19a-3p regulates cell growth through modulation of the PIK3IP1-AKT pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma

There are some controversies about the involvement of microRNA (miR)-19a-3p in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biology, even though many studies have shown that it plays an important role in cancer. In this study, we found that miR-19a-3p is usually overexpressed in HCC tissues compared with corresponding peritumorous tissues, and its expression was associated with tumor size and poor overall survival. MiR-19a-3p promoted cell proliferation significantly, and more cells were found in the S phase. In vivo, miR-19a-3p promoted liver tumor growth, and more HCC cells were found in the active cell cycle. Sequencing and bioinformatics analysis predicted that PIK3IP1 is a likely target gene of miR-19a-3p, and we next confirmed it by luciferase and rescue assays. Altogether, our data showed an important role of PIK3IP1 downregulation by miR-19a-3p in HCC progression, and the miR-19a-3p-PIK3IP1-AKT pathway may be a potential therapeutic target.