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MicroRNA-125a-5p is a downstream effector of sorafenib in its antiproliferative activity toward human hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
Sorafenib is a multikinase inhibitor with specific activity against Raf kinase and several receptor tyrosine kinases. The addition of sorafenib to hepatocellular carcinoma cells increased cellular expression of miR-125a. Upregulation of this miRNA inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell cycle arrest by targeting c-Raf, part of the ERK pathway that is involved in cell proliferation and sirtuin-7, (SIRT-7) a NAD(+)-dependent deacetylase that inhibits transcriptional activation of the cell cycle inhibitor p21. Therefore, sorafenib inhibits Raf activity and upregulates miR125 that, in turn, targets c-Raf and SIRT7; this dual inhibition of Raf activity and expression together with p21-dependent cycle arrest coherently combine to explain the antiproliferative activity of the drug.