Higher lncRNA CASC15 expression predicts poor prognosis and associates with tumor growth in cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of long non-coding RNA Cancer Susceptibility Candidate 15 (CASC15) in cervical cancer and its potential molecular mechanism.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The CASC15 expression was measured in cervical cancer tissues and cell lines by using quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8), flow cytometry analysis and transwell cell invasion assays were employed to detect the capacities of cell proliferation and cell invasion. Furthermore, Western blot analysis was applied to detected the E-cadherin and N-cadherin expression in EMT pathway.

RESULTS: We demonstrated that lncRNA CASC15 expression was higher in cervical cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Higher lncRNA CASC15 expression associated with lymph node metastasis and FIGO stage. Moreover, our results showed that higher lncRNA CASC15 expression predicted poor prognosis of cervical cancer. Functional assays showed that knockdown of lncRNA CASC15 suppressed cell proliferation and cell cycle progression in cervical cancer. Moreover, we also found that knockdown of lncRNA CASC15 inhibited cell invasion ability and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) signaling pathway by upregulating E-cadherin and downregulating N-cadherin expression in cervical cancer.

CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that lncRNA CASC15 expression may be a prognostic biomarker and contributed to cell proliferation and invasion in cervical cancer.