LAUSR

Natural antisense transcripts (NAT) are prevalent phenomena in the mammalian genome and play significant regulatory roles in gene expression. While new insights into NAT continue to be revealed, their exact function and their underlying mechanisms in human cancer remain largely unclear. We identified a NAT of CDK4, referred to TSPAN31, which inhibits CDK4 mRNA and protein expression in human cervical cancer by targeting the 3′‐untranslated region (3′‐UTR) of the CDK4 mRNA. Furthermore, silencing the expression of the TSPAN31 mRNA rescued the TSPAN31 3′‐UTR‐ or the TSPAN31 full‐length‐induced decrease in CDK4 expression. Noteworthy, we discovered that TSPAN31, as a member of the tetraspanin family, suppressed cell proliferation by down‐regulating its antisense pairing with CDK4 and decreasing retinoblastoma protein phosphorylation in human cervical cancer. Therefore, the results of the present study suggest that TSPAN31 may serve as a potential molecular target for the development of novel anti‐cancer agents.