Fig. 4

β-Catenin is a direct target of miR-34c. a Correlation between β-catenin mRNA and miR-34c levels in the serum of 20 NPC patients measured by qRT-PCR; expression was normalized to the mean level in three normal serum samples. b Expression of β-catenin in different NPC cells determined by qRT-PCR. c β-catenin was measured by qRT-PCR in miR-34c-transfected NPC cells. d After 48 h of transfecting miR-34c, β-catenin protein expression was detected by Western blot analysis. e β-Catenin expression level determined by qRT-PCR 48 h after transfection with miR-34c. f Graphical representation indicating miR-34c interaction sites within the 3′-UTR of β-catenin mRNA with boxes. Mutations were generated in the β-catenin 3′-UTR site complementary to the seed sequences of miR-34c. g The β-catenin 3′-UTR with a putative wild-type (WT) miR-34c-binding site or a binding site mutated at the 3′-UTR region (Mut) were cloned downstream of the CMV promoter in the pmiR-REPORT vector. Luciferase activity was measured after cotransfection of the reporter constructs with WT- or Mut-interacting sites or miR-Ctrl in HEK293T cells (data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001; ns no statistical significance)