Objective: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is closely associated with cancer occurrence and tumor development. However, the biological function of lncRNA ZNFX1-AS1 has not yet been reported in bladder cancer. The present study aimed to study the function of ZNFX1-AS1 in bladder cancer cells and the mechanism involved.
Patients and methods: The expression of ZNFX1-AS1 in bladder cancer tumor tissues and cell lines was examined by qRT-PCR. The effects of ZNFX1-AS1 knockdown on cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell migration, and invasion were assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8, flow cytometry (FCM), and transwell assays. Bioinformatics analyses and Luciferase reporter assays were performed to explore the mechanism by which ZNFX1-AS1 exerted its oncogenesis role in bladder cancer. The anti-tumor effect of ZNFX1-AS1 silencing on bladder cancer in vivo was also evaluated.
Results: ZNFX1-AS1 was over-expressed in bladder cancer tumor tissues and cell lines. ZNFX1-AS1 expression was found to be associated with tumor size and advanced clinical stage in patients with bladder cancer. Downregulation of ZNFX1-AS1 inhibited cell proliferation, cell clone formation, migration, and invasion of bladder cancer cells. ZNFX1-AS1 was found to interact with miR-193a-3p/Syndecan 1 (SDC1). ZNFX1-AS1 expression was negatively correlated with miR-193a-3p expression, but positively correlated with SDC1 expression in bladder cancer samples. ZNFX1-AS1 knockdown also effectively suppressed tumor growth in an in vivo xenograft model.
Conclusions: ZNFX1-AS1 regulated bladder cancer progression by targeting the miR-193a-3p/SDC1 axis. Our study may provide novel insights for bladder cancer prognosis and therapy.