Long non-coding RNA HNF1A-AS1 promotes proliferation and suppresses apoptosis of bladder cancer cells through upregulating Bcl-2

// Yonghao Zhan 1, 2 , Yifan Li 1 , Bao Guan 1 , Zicheng Wang 1 , Ding Peng 1 , Zhicong Chen 1, 2 , Anbang He 1, 2 , Shiming He 1 , Yanqing Gong 1 , Xuesong Li 1 and Liqun Zhou 1 1 Department of Urology, Peking University First Hospital, The Institute of Urology, Peking University, National Urological Cancer Centre, Beijing, 100034, China 2 Department of Urology, State Engineering Laboratory of Medical Key Technologies Application of Synthetic Biology, Key Laboratory of Medical Reprogramming Technology, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518035, China Correspondence to: Liqun Zhou, email: zhoulqmail@sina.com Xuesong Li, email: pineneedle@sina.com Keywords: bladder cancer, LncRNA, tumorigenesis, Bcl-2, HNF1A-AS1 Received: August 26, 2016      Accepted: August 26, 2017      Published: September 08, 2017 ABSTRACT Emerging evidences have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pivotal regulators of tumor development and progression. HNF1A-AS1 (HNF1A antisense RNA 1, C12 or f27) is a novel long non-coding RNA that acts as a potential biomarker and is involved in development and progression of several cancers. Nevertheless, we know nothing about the clinical significance and molecular mechanism of HNF1A-AS1 in bladder cancer. In this study, we found that HNF1A-AS1 is significantly up-regulated in bladder cancer. Further experiments had demonstrated that silencing HNF1A-AS1 in bladder cancer cells could inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis. Mechanistically, we found down-regulated of HNF1A-AS1 increased the expression of miR-30b-5p and subsequently inhibited the expression of Bcl-2, in a ceRNA-dependent way. Moreover, knockdown of miR-30b-5p reversed cell proliferation inhibition and cell apoptosis induced by silencing HNF1A-AS1. In conclusions, we demonstrated that HNF1A-AS1 plays an important regulatory role in bladder cancer and shed new light on lncRNA-directed diagnostic and therapeutics in bladder cancer.