LncRNA CASC19 promotes the growth and glycolysis of colorectal cancer cells and tumor metastasis in mice.

It has been reported that lncRNA CASC19 is abnormally highly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression, suggesting that it may regulate the occurrence and metastasis of CRC, but its specific mechanism is still unclear. To further explore the effect of CASC19 on CRC, we overexpressed or knocked down CASC19 in HR4838 cells. The results of Transwell invasion assay and cell clonogenic assay showed that CASC19 promoted cell invasion and proliferation. Flow cytometry results showed that CASC19 inhibited cell apoptosis. In addition, by detecting glucose uptake, lactate content and ATP production, it was found that CASC19 promoted glycolysis, while CASC19 silencing had the opposite effect. Interestingly, small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide A (SNRPA) is an RNA binding protein of CASC19. Overexpression of SNRPA promoted tumor cell invasion, proliferation, glycolysis, and inhibits apoptosis, while SNRPA silencing has the opposite effect. Moreover, SNRPA overexpression reversed the inhibitory effect of CASC19-sh on invasion, proliferation and glycolysis of HR4838 cells and the promoting effect on apoptosis, which was mediated by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. In the subcutaneous transplantation tumor model of BALB/c nude mice, we observed that the tumor growth of CASC19 knockdown mice was slower, and the tumor weight and volume were smaller, which was related to the low expression of CASC19 and SNRPA. In conclusion, our results showed that CASC19 promoted the growth and glycolysis of CRC cells and tumor metastasis in mice by upregulating SNRPA, which may provide a new molecular marker for the diagnosis and treatment of CRC.