MicroRNA-153 regulates glutamine metabolism in glioblastoma through targeting glutaminase

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive manifestation of malignant gliomas and considered to be among the deadliest forms of human cancers. MicroRNAs are found to tightly regulate diverse biological processes and considered to play important roles in cancer etiology. In this study, we found that microRNA-153 was significantly downregulated in glioblastoma tissues compared to matched non-tumor tissues and in glioblastoma cell lines. To investigate the potential function of microRNA-153 in glioblastoma, we transfected glioblastoma cell line U87MG as well as U373MG with synthetic microRNA-153 oligos and observed decreased cell proliferation and increased apoptosis. We further found that microRNA-153 restrained glutamine utilization and glutamate generation. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that glutaminase, which catalyzed the formation of glutamate from glutamine, is the potential target of microRNA-153. Indeed, microRNA-153 cannot further reduce glutamine utilization when glutaminase was knocked down. Overexpression of glutaminase abrogates the effect of microRNA-153 on glutamine utilization. Furthermore, the relative expression of microRNA-153 and glutaminase in glioblastoma versus matched non-tumor tissues showed a reverse correlation, further indicating that microRNA-153 may negatively regulate glutaminase in vivo. These results demonstrate an unexpected role of microRNA-153 in regulating glutamine metabolism and strengthen the role of microRNA-153 as a therapeutic target in glioblastoma.