Long non-coding RNA promotes cervical cancer progression through regulating c-Met via targeting miR-148a-3p.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)  has been shown to be associated with the development of a variety of cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of  on cervical cancer (CC) and the corresponding mechanism. The qRT-PCR was used to determine the expressions of SNHG4 and  in CC cell lines and tissues. Cell apoptosis and proliferation were measured by flow cytometry and MTT assay, respectively. The interaction between SNHG4,  and  was verified by bioinformatics, dual-luciferase reporter gene and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), and the effect of  on the growth of CC tumor  was explored. The expression of  was increased in both CC cell lines and tissues, while the expression of  was down-regulated. Meanwhile, silencing SNHG4 remarkably inhibited CC cell proliferation and promoted apoptosis. In addition, miR-148a-3p was a direct target gene of , and down-regulation of miR-148a-3p could observably reverse the effect of silencing  on the proliferation and apoptosis of CC cells. More importantly,  could up-regulate the expression of  by targeting and interacting with . Finally,  experiments confirmed that silence SNHG4 down-regulated the expression of  by promoting , and ultimately suppressed the growth of CC tumor . In conclusion,  could be used as a competitive endogenous RNA to bind to miR-148a-3p, thereby up-regulating the expression of  and ultimately promoting the progression of CC, which provided a potential therapeutic target for the targeted treatment of CC.