Long intergenic non‑coding RNA LINC01232 contributes to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma progression by sequestering microRNA‑654‑3p and consequently promoting hepatoma‑derived growth factor expression

Abstract

Long intergenic non-coding RNA 01232 (LINC01232) was identified as a critical regulator of the development of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The present study investigated the expression and regulatory roles of LINC01232 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The main aim of the present study was to elucidate the underlying mechanisms through which LINC01232 affects the malignancy of ESCC. Initially, LINC01232 expression in ESCC was analyzed using the TCGA and GTEx databases and was confirmed using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. ESCC cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration and invasion were assessed using the Cell Counting kit-8 assay, flow cytometric analysis, and migration and invasion assays, respectively. ESCC tumor growth in vivo was examined using a xenograft mouse model. As shown by the results, a high LINC01232 expression was detected in ESCC tissues and cell lines. LINC01232 downregulation suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of ESCC cells, and promoted cell apoptosis in vitro . In addition, LINC01232 depletion restricted tumor growth in vivo . Mechanistically, LINC01232 was shown to function as an microRNA-654-3p (miR-654-3p) sponge in ESCC cells, and hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) was identified as a direct target of miR-654-3p. LINC01232 could bind competitively to miR-654-3p and decrease its expression in ESCC cells, thereby promoting HDGF expression. Rescue experiments reconfirmed that the effects of LINC01232 deficiency in ESCC cells were restored by increasing the output of the miR-654-3p/HDGF axis. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that LINC01232 plays a tumor-promoting role during the progression of ESCC by regulating the miR-654-3p/HDGF axis. The LINC01232/miR-654-3p/HDGF pathway may thus provide a novel theoretical basis for the management of ESCC.

LINC01232 Promotes Gastric Cancer Proliferation through Interacting with EZH2 to Inhibit the Transcription of KLF2

“…Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are key components of the transcriptome and play important roles in both normal biological activity and pathological processes, such as viral infection and tumorigenesis [ 19 ]. Previous studies have demonstrated that LINC01232 exerts an oncogenic role in numerous types of tumors [ 8 , 9 ]. In this study, we found that the expression of LINC01232 was upregulated in STAD tissues and gastric cancer lines, indicating that LINC01232 may be a functional gene and a molecular target for clinical treatment of gastric cancer.…”

“…LncRNA has a variety of biological functions in all stages of cancer development, including cell development and immunity, cell proliferation and differentiation, and apoptosis regulation [ 7 ]. Previous evidence has indicated that long intergenic nonprotein-coding RNA 1232 (LINC01232) exerts an oncogenic role in numerous types of tumors, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, et al , [ 8 , 9 ]. In this study, we pre-analyzed the expression of LINC01232 in TCGA database using the GEPIA online tool.…”

Long non‐coding RNA long intergenic non‐protein coding RNA 1232 promotes cell proliferation, migration and invasion in bladder cancer via modulating miR‐370‐5p/PIM3 axis

“…have demonstrated that ribonucleic acid regulator of reprogramming accelerates proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition of BC cells (Chen et al., 2017). The previous study has illustrated that LINC01232 is overexpressed in cancer cells and facilitates the progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Li et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2020). Similarly, we found that LINC01232 is overexpressed in BC cell lines.…”

“…As a novel lncRNA, long intergenic non‐protein coding RNA 1232 (LINC01232) has been validated to exert function in the development and progression of human cancers, such as pancreatic cancer (Du et al., 2021; Li et al., 2019; Meng et al., 2020), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Zhao et al., 2020), and gastric cancer (Liu et al., 2021). Nonetheless, the specific function of LINC01232 in BC remains unclear.…”

LINC01232 Promotes Metastasis and EMT by Regulating miR-506-5p/PAK1 Axis in Gastric Cancer

“…It can promote metastasis of pancreatic cancer, 15 clear cell renal cell carcinoma 17 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. 19 However, the function of LINC01232 on the metastasis of gastric cancer has not been reported. In this study, we verified that silencing of LINC01232 suppressed invasion, migration and EMT ability in gastric cancer cells.…”