lncRNA PART1 and MIR17HG as ΔNp63α direct targets regulate tumor progression of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

Cervical cancer (CC) remains one of the leading causes of mortality of female cancers worldwide, with more than 90% being cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). ΔNp63α is the predominant isoform expressed in cervical epithelial tissues and exerts its antitumor function in CSCC. In this study, we have identified 39 long noncoding RNAs as ΔNp63α targets in CSCC through RNA sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing, in which we further confirmed and focused on the two tumor-related long noncoding RNAs, PART1 (lncPART1) and MIR17HG (lncMIR17HG). Experiments from stable overexpression/knockdown cell lines revealed that lncPART1 and lncMIR17HG regulated cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. In vivo experiments further showed that lncPART1 suppresses tumor growth in CSCC-derived tumors. Examinations of clinical tissues indicated that the expression of lncPART1 was positively correlated with ΔNp63α expression, while lncMIR17HG was negatively correlated with ΔNp63α expression, suggesting that ΔNp63α plays a central role via regulating its direct targets in the progression of CSCC. These findings provide novel insights in targeted therapy of cervical cancers.