In recent studies, miR-124-3p has been suggested as an inhibitor of carcinogenesis by regulating mitogen-activated protein kinase 4 in gastric cancer (Wu et al., 2020), what is more, miR-124-3p takes part in numerous ceRNA networks, such as the LINC00240-miR-124-3p-STAT3/MICA axis in cervical tumors (Zhang et al., 2020), the KCNQ1OT1-miR-124-3p-TRIM14 axis in tongue cancer (Qiao et al., 2020), the LINC01410-miR-124-3p-SMAD5 network in cholangiocarcinoma (Jiang et al., 2020), and the LINC01234-miR-124-3p-GRB2 axis in multiple myeloma (Chen et al., 2019). Here, MAP2K4 is linked to tongue cancer.