Profiling of molecular pathways regulated by microRNA 601

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in complex vertebrate developmental and pathological systems as a versatile class of molecules involved in the regulation of various biological processes and molecular pathways. To elucidate the role of miRNAs in human somatic cells, an understanding of the molecular framework regulated by individual miRNA is essential. In this study, we examined the effect of hsa-miR-601 on gene expression changes in human lung cancer cells A549. To achieve this, DNA microarray and global pathway analyses were performed on hsa-miR-601 introduced cells for two successive days. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the effect of hsa-miR-601 over-represented the negative regulation of translation/translational initiation, whereas GenMAPP analysis revealed that several characteristic pathways were changed in hsa-miR-601 introduced A549 cells compared to control short RNA introduced cells. Among them, up-regulation of actin cytoskeleton and down-regulation of Fas-induced apoptosis pathway occurred on two successive days after hsa-miR-601 introduction. Using a luciferase reporter assay, we also showed that hsa-miR-601 specifically repressed nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) transcription factor-dependent reporter expression, a key component of the immune-oncogenesis pathway. These findings suggest that hsa-miR-601 could affect a variety of signaling pathways accompanying orchestrated gene expression changes. Our results argue that individual miRNAs affect complex regulation of cellular signaling pathways.