Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 14|pp 14452—14466

Long noncoding RNA LINC01559 promotes pancreatic cancer progression by acting as a competing endogenous RNA of miR-1343-3p to upregulate RAF1 expression

Xiao Chen¹, Jie Wang², Fei Xie², Tinggang Mou², Pingyong Zhong², Hao Hua², Pan Liu², Qin Yang³

¹Department of Osteology, The First Peoples Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, Sichuan, China
²Department of Hepatic-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, The First Peoples Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, Sichuan, China
³Department of Gastroenterology, The First Peoples Hospital of Neijiang, Neijiang, Sichuan, China

* Equal contribution

Received: March 6, 2020Accepted: May 27, 2020Published: July 17, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: An increasing number of studies have shown that lncRNAs are involved in the biological processes of pancreatic cancer (PC). Hence, we investigated the role of a novel noncoding RNA, LINC01559, involved in PC progression.

Results: LINC01559 and RAF1 were highly expressed in PC, while miR-1343-3p had low expression. High expression of LINC01559 was significantly associated with large tumors, lymph node metastasis, and poor prognosis. Functional experiment results revealed that silencing of LINC01559 significantly suppressed PC cell proliferation and metastasis. Meanwhile, LINC01559 could act as a ceRNA to competitively sponge miR-1343-3p to up-regulate RAF1 and activate its downstream ERK pathway

Conclusions: LINC01559 functions as an oncogene in PC progression through acting as a ceRNA of miR-1343-3p. Hence, LINC01559 is a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target.

Methods: RT-qPCR was performed to determine the expression of LINC01559 and miR-1343-3p in PC. Individual patient data were collected to investigate the correlation between clinicopathological features and LINC01559 expression. Subsequently, the expression of LINC01559, miR-1343-3p, and RAF1 was altered using transfection of vectors or inhibitors. Gain- and loss-of-function assays and mechanistic assays were applied to verify the effects of LINC01559, miR-1343-3p, and RAF1 on PC cell proliferation and metastasis in vivo and in vitro.