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ABSTRACT As the fourth commonest malignancy among females worldwide, cervical cancer (CC) poses a huge challenge to human health. The pivotal regulatory roles of lncRNAs in cancers have been highlighted.… Click to show full abstract
ABSTRACT As the fourth commonest malignancy among females worldwide, cervical cancer (CC) poses a huge challenge to human health. The pivotal regulatory roles of lncRNAs in cancers have been highlighted. LOXL1 antisense RNA 1 (LOXL1-AS1) has been reported to play a key role in cervical squamous cell carcinoma and other various cancers. Thus, we investigated the roles and mechanisms of lncRNA LOXL1-AS1 in CC. The in vivo experiments demonstrated that LOXL1-AS1 downregulation inhibited tumor growth and metastasis and proliferation of CC cells. The results of RT-qPCR demonstrated that LOXL1-AS1 and ectodermal-neural cortex 1 (ENC1) expression levels were upregulated in CC cells and tissues, while microRNA-423-5p (miR-423-5p) level was downregulated. As subcellular fractionation assays, RNA pull down assays and luciferase reporter assays revealed, LOXL1-AS1 bound to miR-423-5p and miR-423-5p targeted ENC1. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays, wound healing and colony formation assays demonstrated that miR-423-5p upregulation and LOXL1-AS1 downregulation inhibited CC cell proliferation and migration, while ENC1 upregulation attenuated the inhibitory effects of miR-423-5p upregulation on the malignant phenotypes of CC cells. Western blotting was conducted to measure protein levels and the results showed that ENC1 knockdown inhibited the activation of ERK/MEK pathway. In summary, the LOXL1-AS1/miR-423-5p/ENC1 axis accelerates CC development through the MEK/ERK pathway.