Figure 5. MiR-877-3p targeted PMEPA1 and repressed the expression of PMEPA1. (A) The common genes that could be targeted by miR-877-3p as predicted by the TargetScan, miRDB and DIANA-microT online predicting tools. (B) The predicted binding sites between PMEPA1 3’UTR and miR-877-3p. The red letters showed the mutant sites in PMEPA1 3’UTR used for constructing the mutant luciferase reporter vector. (C, D) Luciferase activity of PMEPA1 3’UTR-wt reporter vectors and PMEPA1 3’UTR-mut reporter vectors in KYSE-510 cells after transfecting with different miRNAs. (E) Western blot assay and qRT-PCR determined the protein and mRNA expression levels of PMEPA1 in KYSE-510 cells. KYSE-510 cells were transfected with mimics NC, miR mimics, inhibitors NC or miR inhibitors. (F) Knockdown of linc00941 down-regulated PMEPA1 expression in KYSE-510 cells as determined by western blot and qRT-PCR assays. (G) The expression of PMEPA1 in ESCC tissues (n = 182) and normal oesophageal tissues (n = 13); The expression of lincRNAs was extracted from TGCA database. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 compared between different treatment groups.