miR-3682-3p directly targets FOXO3 and stimulates tumor stemness in hepatocellular carcinoma via a positive feedback loop involving FOXO3/PI3K/AKT/c-Myc

Figure 5 c-Myc binds to the miR-3682-3p promoter region and promotes its transcriptional activation. A: Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that miR-3682-3p is positively associated with c-Myc; B: Bioinformatic-based prediction of c-Myc binding sites in the miR-3682-3p promoter region; C and D: RT-qPCR analysis of miR-3682-3p levels after c-Myc silencing and overexpression; E and F: Chromatin immunoprecipitation validated the binding of c-Myc to the miR-3682-3p promoter; G: Dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed the binding of c-Myc to the miR-3682-3p promoter. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, ^cP < 0.001. Experiments were repeated three times. NC: Negative control.