LncRNA XLOC_006390 facilitates cervical cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis as a ceRNA against miR-331-3p and miR-338-3p

Objective: Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors.Our previous results showed that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) XLOC_006390 plays an important role in cervical cancer.In this study, we have explored the mechanism of action of lncRNA XLOC_006390.Methods: LncRNA XLOC_006390 was proposed to exercise its function as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), and its potential targeted miRNAs was predicted through the database LncBase Predicted v.2.Two miRNAs, miR-331-3p, and miR-338-3p, were chosen for the study.Expression of miRNAs and lncRNA in cervical cancer cells and tissues was detected by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.To determine the correlation, silencing of XLOC_006390, over-expression of miR-331-3p, and miR-338-3p was performed in SiHa and Caski cell lines, respectively.Results: Based on the interactive effect between miRNA and lncRNA, miR-331-3p and miR-338-3p were significantly downregulated in cervical cancer cells and tissues, and their expression levels were negatively related to that of lncRNA.Our results also showed that the expression of miR-331-3p target gene NRP2, miR-338-3p target genes PKM2, EYA2 was significantly downregulated when the XLOC_006390 was knocked down.Further, XLOC_006390 was found to facilitate cervical cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis by downregulating miR-331-3p and miR-338-3p expression.Conclusion: Taken together, our study demonstrated that XLOC_006390 may serve as a ceRNA and reversely regulates the expression of miR-331-3p and miR-338-3p, thus facilitating cervical cancer tumorigenesis and metastasis.