Role of miR-21 in the downregulation of Sema5A protein in glioblastomas

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain tumor and is extremely resistant to most chemotherapies. Sema5A is a transmembrane protein recently found to be essential for controlling glioblastoma cell growth and migration. miR-21 was found to downregulate the expression of Sema5A, which results in glioblastoma cell proliferation. This research illustrated that Sema5A masking oligonucleotides approach successfully reduced glioblastoma cell proliferation, migration, and colony formation by preventing miR-21 from binding on to the 3’UTR of Sema5A. These findings suggest that miRNA-masking oligonucleotides are potential therapeutics for glioblastomas.