Self-renewal is essential for the malignant biological behaviors of
colorectal cancer stem cells. While the self-renewal molecular mechanisms of
colorectal cancer stem cells are not yet fully understood. Recently,
miRNAs are reported to be relevant to the self-renewal ability of cancer stem cells. In this study, we first isolated
colorectal cancer stem cell from
colorectal cancer cell line HCT-116 by 1% low serum culture. Then we conducted a comprehensive analysis based on the
miRNAs profiles data of both
colorectal cancer stem cells and normal cultured
colorectal cancer cells. Pathway analysis revealed multiple pathways including Jak-STAT,
TGF-beta, PI3K-Akt and MAPK signaling pathway that are correlated to
colorectal cancer. Further, we constructed a
miRNA-
mRNA network, based on which, several
miRNA/
mRNA pairs were ranked according to their impact index to the self-renewal of
colorectal cancer stem cells. Further biological experiment showed that up-regulation of miR-92a-3p led to cell cycle arrest and reduced colony formation. This work provides clues to find the new potential
biomarkers for
colorectal cancer stem cell diagnosis and select effective
miRNAs for targeted
therapy.