Background: Long non-coding RNAs has been reported in tumorigenesis and play important roles in regulating malignant behavior of cancers, including glioma.
Methods: According to the TCGA database, we identified SNHG1, miRNA-154-5p and miR-376b-3p whose expression were significantly changed in the glioma samples. Furthermore, we investigated SNHG1, miRNA-154-5p and miR-376b-3p expression in clinical samples and glioma cell lines using qRT-PCR analysis and the correlation between them using RNA immunoprecipitation and dual-luciferase reporter. The underlying mechanisms of SNHG1 in glioma were also investigated using immunohistochemistry staining, Western blotting, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and RNA pulldown. Cell Counting Kit-8, transwell assays, and flow cytometry were used to investigate malignant biological behaviors.
Results: We have elucidated the potential molecular mechanism of long non-coding RNA SNHG1 regulating the malignant behavior of glioma cells by binding to microRNA-154-5p or miR-376b-3p. Moreover, our deep-going results showed that FOXP2 existed as a direct downstream target of both microRNA-154-5p and miR-376b-3p; FOXP2 increased promoter activities and enhanced the expression of the oncogenic gene KDM5B; and KDM5B also acts as a RNA-binding protein to maintain the stability of SNHG1.
Conclusion: Collectively, this study demonstrates that the SNHG1- microRNA-154-5p/miR-376b-3p- FOXP2- KDM5B feedback loop plays a pivotal role in regulating the malignant behavior of glioma cells.
Keywords: Glioma; Long non-coding RNA; Oncogenes; Transcription factor; microRNA.