This regulation was alleviated when two nucleotides in the seed site had been mutated (Figure 3B), indicating that the miR-143 directly regulates HK2. Western blot analysis further confirmed that miR-143 overexpression lead to a down-regulation of HK2 protein levels in both DLD-1 and HCT116 colon cancer cells (Figure 3C). Here, HK2 is linked to malignant colon neoplasm.