Abstract: Objective    To investigate miRNAs-mRNAs related to the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer, and study the effect of PALB2 on the biological characters of human esophageal cancer EC109 cells.   Methods   The data of esophageal cancer miRNAs were downloaded from GEO and TCGA databases to screen out the intersecting miRNAs. The potential target genes of intersection were predicted by starbase database, and the key target genes were identified by PPI network analysis. Functional enrichment analysis was performed for differential genes and hub target genes in GO and KEGG databases. PALB2 gene with significant prognostic difference was selected for cell test, and PALB2 specific small interfering RNA (si-PALB2) was synthesized and transfected into EC109 cells. The expression level of PALB2 in the cells was detected by RT-qPCR. The effects of PALB2 on cell viability, invasion, migration and apoptosis were investigated by MTT, Transwell and flow cytometry. The expression of cyclin CyclinD1, apoptosis suppressor Bcl-2 and matrix metalloproteinase MMP-9 were detected by Western blot.   Results   Bioinformatics analysis showed that miRNAs-mRNAs were involved in the development of esophageal cancer. After PALB2 knockdown, EC109 cell viability, invasion and metastasis ability were significantly decreased, apoptosis ability was significantly increased, and the expressions of cyclinD1, Bcl-2 and MMP-9 were significantly down-regulated.   Conclusions    MiRNAs-mRNAs are biomarkers for predicting the development of esophageal cancer. PALB2 plays a role in promoting cancer in esophageal cancer, and is closely related to the regulation of cyclin, anti-apoptotic protein and invasion and metastasis related protein, which is a potential target for diagnosis and treatment.

Key words: Bioinformatics analysis,  ,  , miRNA,  ,  , Esophageal cancer,  ,  , PALB2