Upregulation of LINC00963 facilitates melanoma progression through miR-608/NACC1 pathway and predicts poor prognosis.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are acknowledged as crucial regulators involved in multiple pathological processes, including cancer. Although some lncRNAs are studied in melanoma, the association between lncRNA and melanoma progression still remains vague. And the function of LINC00963 in melanoma is waiting for investigation. In this study, upregulated level of LINC00963 in melanoma tissues was observed. Notably, we found DNA copy-number-gain of LINC00963 contributes to its high expression. And high expression of LINC00963 predicts poor prognosis in patients with melanoma. Functional investigation indicated that LINC00963 knockdown dramatically suppressed melanoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Mechanistically, we found that LINC00963 could interact with miR-608 while miR-608 could target NACC1. Upregulated LINC00963 led to elevated expression of NACC1 through inhibiting miR-608, which consequently promoted melanoma malignant progression. Taken together, our results illustrated that LINC00963-miR-608-NACC1 pathway might be a potential target for melanoma therapy.