einstein (São Paulo). 08/Aug/2025;23:eAO1601.
Interconnected study of molecular pathways: miR-137 as a central element at the intersection of lipid metabolism and prostate carcinogenesis
DOI: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2025AO1601
Highlights
■ The reduction of miR-137 in tumor tissues is associated with a worse prognosis.
■ miR-137 has eight oncogenically relevant target genes acting in the PPARα lipid pathway.
■ NCOA1, NCOA3, MED27, and ESRRA are associated with advanced prostate cancer.
■ miR-137 exhibits significant clinical potential by repressing the activation of pathways that influence prostate tumorigenesis in hyperstimulated metabolic environments.
ABSTRACT
Objective:
To evaluate the roles of miR-137 and its target genes in lipid metabolism and prostate tumorigenesis.
Methods:
We used a series of bioinformatic approaches to establish the relationship between miR-137 and its target genes. We mapped the metabolic pathways of interest in the Reactome database and identified the central target genes of miR-137 in this pathway using four platforms: Reactome, miRDB, miRmap, and TargetScan. To assess the expression and association with clinical parameters, we obtained information from the UALCAN, OncoDB, and GEPIA2 databases using a dataset of patients with prostate cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas. For functional enrichment analysis and construction of the protein-protein interaction network, we used the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, Gene Ontology, and STRING.
Results:
Our in silico study of The Cancer Genome Atlas database revealed that miR-137 is underexpressed in tumor tissues, and its reduction is associated with poor prognosis. An intriguing set of eight genes within the PPARα pathway: PPARGC1A, PPARGC1B, NCOA1, NCOA2, NCOA3, MED1, MED27, and ESRRA displayed synergy, positive correlations, and synchronized expression patterns in adipose, hepatic, and prostatic tissues, all linked to the enigmatic processes of metabolic regulation. Among the highlighted genes, ESRRA was overexpressed in the malignant environment, whereas its counterparts remained underexpressed. The plot was thickened with associations between the expression of NCOA1, NCOA3, and MED27, lymph node involvement, and the overexpression of several genes linked to advanced prostate cancer stages. An intriguing pattern emerged, with patients exhibiting reduced disease-free survival overexpressing NCOA2, NCOA3, MED27, and ESRRA.
Conclusion:
This study elucidates the possibility that miR-137 subtly modulates metabolic genes in prostate cancer, suggesting its latent therapeutic potential as a biomarker for disease progression.
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