Exosome-mediated miR-222 transferring: An insight into NF-κB-mediated breast cancer metastasis

Highlights: • Exosomal miR-222 is highly expressed in BCa patients with lymphatic metastasis. • miR-222 promotes the aggressivity of BCa cells in vitro and in vivo. • miR-222 leads to the activation of NF-κB signal pathway by targeting PDLIM2. • Exosome-transferred miR-222 promotes migration and invasion of BCa cells. The subtypes of distant-organ metastasis led to treatment failure and poor prognosis are major obstacles in the management of patients with advanced breast cancer (BCa). Emerging evidences demonstrated that exosomes act as mediators for intercellular communication between various types of cells in the local tumor microenvironment. The present study aims to investigate whether BCa-derived exosomes are capable of cell-cell transferring miR-222 for BCa metastatic progression. Results showed that exosomal miR-222 is highly expressed in BCa patients with lymphatic metastasis. Consistently, the elevated levels of exosomal miR-222 are closely correlated with the high aggressivity of BCa cell lines. miR-222 promoting the aggressivity of BCa cells was confirmed in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, miR-222 directly targets PDLIM2, a tumor suppressor gene, leading to activation of NF-κB signal pathway. In conclusion, the levels of exosomal miR-222 are correlated with BCa metastatic progression. Exosome-transferred miR-222 promotes migration and invasion of BCa cells. miR-222 contributes to tumorigenicity of BCa cells through down-regulation of PDLIM2 and consequently activating NF-κB.