Long non-coding RNA HOXA-AS2 promotes migration and invasion by acting as a ceRNA of miR-520c-3p in osteosarcoma cells. Issue 13 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Yihan; Zhang, Rui; Cheng, Guangqi; Xu, Ruida; Han, Xiaofeng
• Is Part Of: Cell cycle. Volume 17:Issue 13(2018)
• Page Start: 1637
• Page End: 1648
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: HOXA-AS2 -- LncRNA -- Osteosarcoma -- miR-520c-3p -- EMT -- therapeutic target; Cell cycle -- Periodicals; 571.84377
• DOI: 10.1080/15384101.2018.1489174
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1538-4101

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Osteosarcoma (OS) is the commonest primary malignant tumour originating from bone. Previous studies demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) could participate in both oncogenic and tumor suppressing pathways in various cancer, including OS. The HOXA cluster antisense RNA2 (HOXA-AS2) plays an important role in carcinogenesis, however, the underlying role of HOXA-AS2 in OS progression remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the expression and function of HOXA-AS2 in OS. The qRT-PCR analysis was to investigate the expression pattern of HOXA-AS2 in OS tissues. Then, the effects of HOXA-AS2 on cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, migration, and invasion were assessed in OS in vitro . Furthermore, bioinformatics online programs predicted and luciferase reporter assay were used to validate the association of HOXA-AS2 and miR-520c-3p in OS cells. We observed that HOXA-AS2 was up-regulated in OS tissues. In vitro experiments revealed that HOXA-AS2 knockdown significantly inhibited OS cells proliferation by promoting apoptosis and causing G1 arrest, whereas HOXA-AS2 overexpression promoted cell proliferation. Further functional assays indicated that HOXA-AS2 significantly promoted OS cell migration and invasion by promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Bioinformatics online programs predicted that HOXA-AS2 sponge miR-520c-3p at 3ʹ-UTR with complementary binding sites, which was validated using luciferase reporter assay. HOXA-AS2 could negatively regulate the expression of miR-520c-3p in OS cells. In conclusion, our study suggests that HOXA-AS2 acts as a functional oncogene in OS.