Journal of Shandong University (Health Sciences) ›› 2026, Vol. 64 ›› Issue (7): 1-10.doi: 10.6040/j.issn.1671-7554.0.2025.0890

• Preclinical Medicine •     Next Articles

Mechanism of piR-020829 in regulating hepatocellular carcinoma proliferation via insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3

XU Jingyi1, SONG Yanwei1, WANG Lijing1, ZHU Yuhua1, MA Mingze1, LIU Xinxin2   

  1. 1. Department of Infectious Diseases, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China;
    2. Digestive Endoscopy Center, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250021, Shandong, China
  • Online:2026-07-10 Published:2026-07-21

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Abstract: Objective To investigate the role of piRNA-020829(piR-020829)in regulating malignant proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)and its underlying molecular mechanism. Methods Quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the expression levels of piR-020829 in HCC tissues and adjacent non-tumor liver tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation between piR-020829 expression and overall survival(OS)and progression-free survival(PFS)in HCC patients. Short hairpin RNA interference technology was employed to knock down piR-020829 expression in SNU387 cells(knockdown group), with SNU387 cells transfected with negative control vector serving as negative control group. piR-020829 mimic was used to overexpress piR-020829 in Hep3B cells(overexpression group), with Hep3B cells transfected with mimic negative control serving as overexpression negative control group. CCK-8 assay was used to detect cell proliferation viability in SNU387/Hep3B cells after piR-020829 knockdown or overexpression. For in vivo experiments, 32 nude mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: antagomir group(tail vein injection of piR-020829 Antagomir), antagomir control group(injection of Antagomir NC), mimic group(injection of piR-020829 mimic), and mimic control group(injection of mimic NC); tumor weight was observed in each group at the end of the experiment. Colony formation assay was used to detect the in vitro proliferative capacity of SNU387/Hep3B cells after piR-020829 knockdown or overexpression. Results Compared with adjacent normal tissues, the expression level of piR-020829 was significantly elevated in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)tissues. Survival analysis showed that HCC patients with relatively high expression of piR-020829 had significantly shorter overall survival and progression free survival than those with low expression, indicating that high piR-020829 expression predicts a poor prognosis in HCC patients. In vitro experiments confirmed that knockdown of piR-020829 led to a significant decrease in the proliferation viability and colony formation ability of HCC cells(P<0.05), while treatment with piR-020829 mimic increased HCC cell proliferation activity and colony formation. Nude mouse subcutaneous xenograft experiments demonstrated that treatment with piR-020829 Antagomir resulted in a significantly lower tumor weight compared with the antagomir control group, whereas treatment with piR-020829 mimic led to a significantly higher tumor weight compared with the mimic control group. Immunohistochemical staining of xenograft tumors from the antagomir group showed a significantly lower Ki-67 positive rate than that in the antagomir control group(P<0.05). Knockdown of piR-020829 downregulated the expression of the apoptosis-related proteins B-cell lymphoma-2(Bcl-2)and B-cell lymphoma-xl(Bcl-xl), and upregulated the expression of cysteine-aspartic protease 3(Caspase-3)(P<0.05). Knockdown of piR-020829 also downregulated the expression of the cell cycle-related proteins CDK4 and Cyclin D1(P<0.05). Furthermore, mechanistic investigation revealed that knockdown of piR-020829 significantly upregulated the expression of its target molecule insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3(IGFBP3)(P<0.05). Conclusion piR-020829 promotes malignant proliferation of HCC cells by targeting and inhibiting IGFBP3 expression, and this molecule may serve as a novel molecular target for anti-HCC targeted therapy.

Key words: Piwi-interacting RNA, Insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Proliferation, Apoptosis

CLC Number: 

  • R735.7
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