LAUSR

Gastric cancer (GC) represents the fifth most human malignant disease and the third‐most common cause of cancer‐related death. Gambogic acid (GA) is a natural compound with a polyprenylated xanthone structure and possesses remarkable antitumor activity in a variety of cancer cells. However, the mechanism underlying the inhibitory effect of GA in GC is far from being completely understood. The goal of the present study is to investigate whether potential microRNAs are involved in antitumor effect of GA toward GC and to elucidate the possible mechanisms. We identified that miR‐26a‐5p was significantly increased by GA in GC cell lines and xenograft tumor. Downregulation of miR‐26a‐5p not only prevented GA‐induced inhibition on GC cell growth, but also suppressed GA‐induced apoptosis of GC cells. Informatics assay predicted that Wnt5a was regulated by miR‐26a‐5p and GA‐induced downregulation of Wnt5a was prevented by anti‐miR‐26a‐5p. Reporter gene assay showed that miR‐26a‐5p could negatively regulate Wnt5a through direct binding with 3ʹ‐UTR messenger RNA of Wnt5a. Thus, upregulation of Wnt5a exhibited the same action tendency for GA‐induced GC cell growth and apoptosis as observed by downregulation of miR‐26a‐5p. In conclusion, these results indicated that the inhibitory effect of GA on GC was mediated by the upregulation of miR‐26a‐5p and downregulation of Wnt5a. Our study provided new clues for the potential therapeutic effect of GA against GC and highlighted the importance of miR‐26a‐5p/Wnt5a pathway in the regulation of GC development.