Issue Archive

LINC00665 promotes HeLa cell proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by activating the WNT-CTNNB1/β‑catenin signaling pathway

XIA Lu^1,*, CHEN Yi-Xing¹, LIAN Jia-Bian²

¹Laboratory of Cancer Center, , The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China；²Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen 361000, China

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays critical roles in cancer progression. However, the role of long non-coding RNA 00665 (LINC00665) in most cancers is poorly understood. The purpose of the present study was to reveal the functional role of LINC00665 in cervical cancer cells. HeLa cells were subjected to LINC00665 short hairpin RNA (shRNA) or control shRNA treatment to investigate the metastasis and proliferation phenotype of cervical cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Transcriptome sequencing experiments of HeLa cells in LINC00665 silencing or control group were conducted, and the differentially 

expressed genes (DEGs) were screened. The DEGs were subjected to Metascape database functional analysis and gene set enrichment analysis. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related markers and a key element of WNT/β‑catenin pathway, CTNNB1 (catenin beta 1), were detected by Western blot and immunofluorescence assay. The results showed that silencing LINC00665 reduced cell viability of Hela cells, up-regulated protein expression level of E-cadherin, down-regulated protein expression levels of N-cadherin, Vimentin and CTNNB1, and inhibited cell migration and invasion of HeLa cells. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that LINC00665 might promote EMT by activating WNT-CTNNB1/β‑catenin signaling pathway. These results indicate that LINC00665 has functions in transcriptional EMT regulation via WNT-CTNNB1/β‑catenin signaling pathway and therefore can be developed as a therapeutic target for cervical cancer.

Key words: cervical cancer; proliferation; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; long noncoding RNA; WNT signaling pathway

Received: 2020-07-06　　Accepted: 2020-09-21

Corresponding author: 夏璐　　E-mail: lianjiabian@163.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2021.0025

Citing This Article：

XIA Lu, CHEN Yi-Xing, LIAN Jia-Bian. LINC00665 promotes HeLa cell proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by activating the WNT-CTNNB1/β‑catenin signaling pathway. Acta Physiol Sin 2021; 73 (2): 233-243