HOTAIR knockdown impairs metastasis of cervical cancer cells by down-regulating metastasis-related genes.

This study investigated the role of LncRNA HOTAIR knockdown in the biological impacts on cervical cancer cells. The HOTAIR gene in two human cervical cancer cell lines was silenced with small interfering (si) RNA siHOTAIR. Proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of cells were assessed following the knockdown. The expressions of Notch1, EpCAM, E-cadherin, vimentin and STAT3 were assessed using qRT-PCR and Western blotting analysis. Compared with controls, HOTAIR levels were reduced significantly, the OD values of cells were significantly decreased in proliferation assays, cell apoptosis was significantly increased, cell migration and invasion were significantly reduced after HOTAIR knockdown. Molecular analysis showed that Notch1, EpCAM, vimentin and STAT3 expressions were decreased significantly, while the expression of E-cadherin was significantly increased after HOTAIR knockdown. Rescue experiments further confirmed that Notch1 and STAT3 were involved in siHOTAIR-mediated reduction of migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells.IMPACT STATEMENT Long non-coding RNAs including HOTAIR, is implicated in occurrence and development of cancer and have been explored to develop new therapeutic options for cancer. HOTAIR silencing significantly reduces the viability and migration ability of cells and induces cell apoptosis, adding experimental data supporting the potential use of HOTAIR specific-siRNA as a therapeutic avenue for the cancer. The finding from this study would help develop clinically applicable therapeutic avenues for the cancer and identify new treatment targets in the relevant pathways leading to new drugs or treatments.