Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) NR027113 in gastric carcinoma, and to further investigate whether it could promote the development of gastric carcinoma via epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathway.
Patients and methods: Quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to analyze the expression of NR027113 in 68 paired of gastric carcinoma and para-carcinoma tissues. Subsequently, the relationship between NR027113 expression and clinical indexes of gastric carcinoma as well as the prognosis of patients was analyzed. NR027113 expression in gastric carcinoma cells was detected by qRT-PCR as well. NR027113 knockdown model was constructed by lentivirus transfection in gastric carcinoma cells (including AGS and SGC-7901). Meanwhile, the effects of NR027113 on the biological functions of gastric carcinoma cells were analyzed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), wound healing, transwell invasion and migration assay, respectively. Furthermore, the correlation between NR027113 and EMT signaling pathways was studied.
Results: QRT-PCR results showed that the expression level of NR027113 in gastric carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that of para-carcinoma tissues. Compared with patients with low expression of NR027113, the incidence of lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis was significantly higher in patients with high NR027113 expression. Meanwhile, the survival rate of patients with low NR027113 expression was significantly lower. Compared with control group, the invasion and migration abilities of cells in NR027113 knockdown group were significantly decreased. Subsequent qRT-PCR results demonstrated that the expression of EMT signaling pathway-related proteins was significantly changed after transfection of sh-NR027113. The above finding indicated that NR027113 could inhibit the malignant progression of gastric carcinoma. Moreover, the addition of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) cytokines synergistically promoted the malignant progression of gastric carcinoma with NR027113.
Conclusions: NR027113 expression was significantly increased in gastric carcinoma. Meanwhile, it was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and poor prognosis of gastric carcinoma patients. Furthermore, NR027113 could accelerate the invasion and migration abilities of gastric carcinoma cells via EMT signaling pathway.