Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 21|pp 9794—9810

LHX2 promotes malignancy and inhibits autophagy via mTOR in osteosarcoma and is negatively regulated by miR-129-5p

Honghai Song^1,², Jiaming Liu^2,³, Xin Wu², Yang Zhou², Xuanyin Chen², Jiangwei Chen², Keyu Deng⁴, Chunxia Mao⁴, Shanhu Huang², Zhili Liu^1,²

¹Department of Science and Technology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China
²Department of Orthopedic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China
³Jiangxi Institute of Respiratory Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330006, China
⁴The National Engineering Research Center for Bioengineering Drugs and Technologies, Institute of Translational Medicine, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330031, China

Received: August 6, 2019Accepted: October 28, 2019Published: November 13, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102427

Copyright © 2019 Song et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The transcript factor LHX2 is dysregulated in many cancers but its role in osteosarcoma (OS) remains unclear. In this study, we confirm that LHX2 is up-regulated in osteosarcoma, and that its silencing inhibits OS malignancy and induces autophagy via mTOR signaling. We further demonstrate that miR-129-5p negatively regulates LHX2 and suppresses the malignant phenotypes of OS. LHX2 overexpression could restore the malignant phenotypes. In conclusion, LHX2 regulates tumorigenesis and autophagy via mTOR in OS and is negatively regulated by miR-129-5p. Targeting the miR-129-5p/LHX2/mTOR axis therefore represents a novel therapeutic strategy for OS treatment.