| Summary: | Qinghua Wang,1–3,* Shujun Jiang,1,2,* Anying Song,1,2 Siyuan Hou,1,2 Qinfeng Wu,4 Longju Qi,5 Xiang Gao1,21State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, 2MOE Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study, Model Animal Research Center, Nanjing Biomedical Research Institute, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 3Laboratory Animal Center, Nantong University, 4Department of Rehabilitation, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong University, 5Interventional Therapy Department of the Third People’s Hospital of Nantong City, Nantong University, Nantong, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this workAbstract: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and it occurs at a higher frequency in males. HOXD-AS1, an important cancer-associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), contributes to the development and progression of several cancers. However, the exact roles of HOXD-AS1 in NSCLC progression are still unknown. Here, we investigated the underlying mechanisms of HOXD-AS1 in human NSCLC tissues. We found that lncRNA HOXD-AS1 was specifically upregulated (P<0.001) in NSCLC tissues and promoted cancer cell growth by targeting miR-147a. Moreover, HOXD-AS1 expression positively correlated with NSCLC clinical pathologic characteristics (tumor size, P=0.006; tumor stage, P=0.044; recurrence, P=0.031) and survival rate (P=0.003). HOXD-AS1 knockdown reduced proliferation and promoted apoptosis of NSCLC cells. The dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that HOXD-AS1 could negatively regulate the expression of miR-147a. miR-147a inhibition abrogated the effect of HOXD-AS1 knockdown on the proliferation and apoptosis of NSCLC cells. Furthermore, HOXD-AS1 positively regulated the expression of pRB (a tumor suppressor protein) in NSCLC cells. Taken together, our data indicated that HOXD-AS1 might be an oncogenic lncRNA that promotes proliferation of NSCLC and could be a therapeutic target in NSCLC. Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, HOXD-AS1, proliferation, miR-147a
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