MiR-21-5p regulates biological malignancy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma via targeting CNTFR

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCA) represents a prevalent, highly aggressive malignancy of the digestive tract. Notably, both its proliferation and metastatic dissemination are facilitated by the tumor microenvironment (TME). One intriguing option for non-invasive biomarkers has been found to be miRNA. MicroRNA-21-5P is an essential regulator of biological processes such as the growth, migration, invasion, and metastasis of some malignancies. The prediction software successfully identified CNTFR as the putative target gene for miR-21-5P. To confirm this interaction, a luciferase reporter gene test was conducted to assess the binding of miR-21-5P to CNTFR. By using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), in comparison to normally adjacent tissues, the tumor tissues of patients with ESCA exhibited elevated relative expression amounts of miR-21-5P and decreased relative expression amounts of CNTFR. Furthermore, miR-21-5P mimics were able to drastically lower the CNTFR gene level, as demonstrated by RT-qPCR and western blot. On the other hand, esophageal cancer cells' expression of CNTFR can be markedly elevated by miR-21-5P inhibitors. Within the context of this research, the association between miR-21-5p and CNTFR was established through bioinformatics, luciferase reporter gene, CCK-8, EdU, transwell, flow cytometry, qRT-PCR, and WB analysis. In summary, our work identifies the miR-21-5p suppresses CNTFR expression to promote ESCA cell proliferation, invasion, and migration; these findings highlight the miR-21-5p/CNTFR axis as a promising candidate for non-invasive diagnostic biomarker development and targeted therapeutic strategy optimization in ESCA.