MiR-149-3p Is a Potential Prognosis Biomarker and Correlated with Immune Infiltrates in Uterine Corpus Endometrial Carcinoma

Background: Endocrine disruption is an important factor in the development of endometrial cancer. Expression of miR-149-3p is observed in some cancer types, while its role in uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is unclear.

Methods: The clinical and genomic data and prognostic information on UCEC were obtained for patients from the TCGA database. The Kruskal-Wallis test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and logistic regression were used to analyze the relationship between clinical characteristics and miR-149-3p expression. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis was used to study the influence of miR-149-3p expression and miR-149-3p target genes on the prognosis of UCEC patients. The TargetScan, PicTar, Gene Ontology (GO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were used to determine the involvement of miR-149-3p target genes in function. Immune infiltration analysis was used to analyze the functional involvement of miR-149-3p. QRT-PCR was used to validate the expression of miR-149-3p in UCEC cell lines.

Results: High expression of miR-149-3p in UCEC was significantly associated with age ( < 0.001), histological type ( < 0.001), histological grade ( < 0.001), tumor invasion (=0.014), and radiation therapy (=0.011). High miR-149-3p expression predicted poorer overall survival (OS) (HR: 2.56; 95% CI: 1.64-4.00; < 0.001), progression-free interval (PFI) (HR: 1.85; 95% CI: 1.29-2.65; =0.001), and disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR: 2.33; 95% CI: 1.37-3.99; =0.002). Low expressions of miR-149-3p target genes, including ADCYAP1R1, CGNL1, CHST3, CYGB, DNAH9, ESR1, HHIP, HIC1, HOXD11, IGF1, INMT, LSP1, MTMR10, NFIC, PLCE1, RARA, SNTN, SPRYD3, and ZBTB7A, were associated with poor OS in UCEC. MiR-149-3p may be involved in the occurrence and development of UCEC via pathways including PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, Ras signaling pathway, AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, focal adhesion, and MAPK signaling pathway. miR-149-3p may inhibit the function of CD8 T cells, cytotoxic cells, eosinophils, iDC, mast cells, neutrophils, NK CD56bright cells, NK CD56dim cells, pDC, T cells, T helper cells, TFH, Th17 cells, and Treg. miR-149-3p was significantly upregulated in UCEC cell lines compared with endometriotic stromal cells.

Conclusion: High expression of miR-149-3p was significantly associated with poor survival in UCEC patients. It may be a promising biomarker of prognosis and response to immunotherapy for UCEC patients.