Long non-coding RNA ZEB1-AS1 promotes glioma cell proliferation, migration and invasion through regulating miR-577.

OBJECTIVE

Long non-coding RNA ZEB1-AS1 (ZEB1-AS1) was reported to be implicated and aberrantly expressed in multiple cancers. However, the potential mechanism and clinical significance of ZEB1-AS1 in the carcinogenesis of glioma remain unclear.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

RT-PCR was performed to determine the expression of ZEB1-AS1 in glioma tissues and cell lines. The association between ZEB1-AS1 expression and clinical features and prognosis were statistically analyzed. MTT and transwell assays were used to test the proliferation, invasion, and migration of glioma cells. Luciferase report assay was used to detect the correlation between ZEB1-AS1 and miR-577 in glioma.

RESULTS

Compared with normal brain tissues and cells, ZEB1-AS1 in glioma tissues and cell lines was shown to be expressed at high levels. Clinical association analysis indicated that ZEB1-AS1 expression was closely associated with tumor size (p = 0.014), KPS (p = 0.004) and WHO grade (p = 0.001). In addition, it was observed that high expression level of ZEB1-AS1 was remarkably associated with overall survival and could be an independent prognostic indicator of glioma using univariate and multivariate analysis. Functional experiments demonstrated that down-regulation of ZEB1-AS1 suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and migration of glioma cell in vitro. In the mechanism, we found that ZEB1-AS1 acted as a competing endogenous RNA to sponge miR-577. Moreover, miR-577 could reverse the tumor-promotive role of ZEB1-AS1 on glioma cells.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated that ZEB1-AS1 might play an oncogenic role in glioma and was a poor prognostic factor. The ZEB1-AS1/miR-577 axis might be a potential target for the development of effective glioma therapy.