Introduction: The therapy of patients with advanced phase gastric cancer is still a huge threat, with extremely imperfect therapies authorized. Even if the amassed indications have validated the significance of lncRNA in gastric cancer, few understandings are stated concerning nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1) practical functions and molecular mechanisms.
Methods: In this research, the expression of NEAT1 and miR-1224-5p in gastric cancer tissues was measured by qRT-PCR analysis, and the expression of remodeling and spacing factor 1 (RSF1) was measured by IHC assay. Then, the bioinformatics prediction software ENCORI was applied to envisage the assumed binding sites. The monitoring roles of NEAT1 or miR-1224-5p on the cell proliferation and migration capacity were verified by CCK-8, wound healing and transwell assay, correspondingly. The interactions among NEAT1, miR-1224-5p and RSF1 were investigated via luciferase analysis.
Results: Our findings revealed high expression levels of NEAT1, RSF1 and a decreased expression level of miR-1224-5p in gastric cancer. Upregulation of NEAT1 or knockdown of miR-1224-5p elevated gastric cancer cell proliferation, and migration. Bioinformatics and luciferase analyses simplified that NEAT1 directly cooperated with miR-1224-5p to weaken miR-1224-5p binding to the RSF1 3ʹ-UTR region. Likewise, the mechanical inquiries ratified that initiation of the miR-1224-5p/RSF1 regulatory loop by miR-1224-5p knockdown or overexpressed RSF1 validated the functions of NEAT1 in endorsing gastric cancer cell malignancy.
Discussion: Our research initially validated that NEAT1 may regulate the expression of RSF1 competitive sponge to miR-1224-5p, contributed to the supervision of gastric cancer evolution, which exposed new brightness for diagnosis and therapy of gastric cancer.
Keywords: competes endogenous RNAs, remodeling and spacing factor 1, long non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, gastric cancer, nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1