Recently, the incidence of melanoma has been on the rise. Patients with distant metastasis share poor prognosis. Increasing studies have been conducted to clarify the molecular mechanisms as well as to investigate potential effective therapeutic targets in the development of melanoma. This study focuses on the LncRNA UCA1 and its downstream regulated factors. In our experiments, UCA1 expression was discovered to be upregulated in melanoma tissues and cells, while the depletion of UCA1 led to the inhibition of cell proliferation, invasion and cell cycle arrest. To further our understanding of the mechanisms of UCA1, a system of experiments was built. We found that miR-507 could directly bind to UCA1 at the miRNA recognition site, and that there was a negative correlation between miR-507 and UCA1. Additionally, FOXM1 is a target of miR-507 and can be downregulated by either miR-507 overexpression or UCA1 depletion. Downregulated FOXM1 was analogous to the depletion of UCA1 and the overexpression of miR-507. These results, taken together, provide evidence for a novel UCA1 interaction regulatory network in tumorigenesis of melanoma.

Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer, and it is typically resistant or rapidly develops resistance to a variety of chemotherapeutic agents. microRNAs (miRNAs) play a part in the occurrence and development of malignant melanoma. In this study, we analyzed the miR-218 expression level in melanoma patients and cell lines and observed alterations in proliferation, cell cycle, migration, and invasion by increasing miR-218 expression in melanoma cell lines. We also performed bioinformatic analyses using TargetScan and miRanda and cloned both the wild-type and mutant versions of the human cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) and B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 (BMI1) 3'-UTR fragments into the pmirGLO reporter vector. We then used the Dual-Luciferase assay system, quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), and Western blot analysis to determine that miR-218 targeted the 3'-UTR of the oncogenes CIP2A and BMI1 and thus regulated the biological process of melanoma. We further demonstrated that CIP2A and BMI1 knockdown phenocopies miR-218 overexpression. In conclusion, our findings have shown that miR-218 is downregulated in melanoma. By targeting CIP2A and BMI1, miR-218 regulates the proliferation, migration, and invasion of the melanoma cell lines A375 and SK-MEL-2, indicating that miR-218 plays a pivotal role in melanoma development.

Hypertrophic scar (HS), a fibroproliferative disorder caused by abnormal wound healing after skin injury, which is characterized by excessive deposition of extracellular matrix and invasive growth of fibroblasts. Recent studies have shown that some non-coding RNA implicated the formation of HS, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we found that lncRNA TRHDE-AS1 was downregulated in HS tissues and HSFs, and the level of lncRNA TRHDE-AS1 negatively correlated with the level of miR-181a-5p in HS tissue and HSFs. Overexpressed lncRNA TRHDE-AS1 significantly suppressed miR-181a-5p level, while promoted HSFs apoptosis and inhibited HSFs proliferation. Further study shown that PTEN was a direct target of miR-181a-5p, and lncRNA TRHDE-AS1 served as a molecular sponge for miR-181a-5p to regulate the expression of PTEN. Overexpression of PTEN could eliminate lncRNA TRHDE-AS1-mediated proliferation suppression of HSFs. In conclusion, our study suggested that lncRNA TRHDE-AS1/miR-181a-5p/PTEN axis plays an important role in promoting hypertrophic scar formation, which may be effectively used as a therapeutic target for hypertrophic scar treatment.