The Function Of LncRNA MNX1-AS1 In Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Esophageal cancer has become one of the ten most common cancers worldwide,which seriously threatens human life.In China,esophageal cancer ranks as the fourth in cancer mortality and the number of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)accounts for approximately 90% of the total esophageal cancer.Long noncoding RNAs(lncRNAs)are a class of RNA molecules that are greater than 200 nt and do not have the potential to encode proteins.At present,the research about lncRNAs has become more and more mature.LncRNAs are recognized to paly roles in regulating a variety of life processes,and are closely related to the occurrence and development of malignant tumors,including ESCC.Among them,lncRNA MNX1-AS1 is reported to be abnormally highly expressed in many types of tumors,and promote the tumorigenesis.However,the role of MNX1-AS1 in ESCC remains unclear.In this study,we analyzed the expression of MNX1-AS1 using GEPIA database,and found it was up-regulated in various cancers.We also visited the kaplan-meier Plotter database and found that the high expression of MNX1-AS1 was associated with poor prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer.Then,we used RT-qPCR to detect the expression of MNX1-AS1 in nine ESCC cell lines(YES2,KYSE30,KYSE70,KYSE140,KYSE150,KYSE180,KYSE410,KYSE450 and KYSE510)and one immortalized normal esophageal epithelial cell line(NE2),and found that the expression level of MNX1-AS1 was up-regulated in ESCC cell lines compared with immortalized cell line.Then,we explored the function of MNX1-AS1 in ESCC cells through a series of experiments,and the results showed that the abilities of the proliferation,migration and invasion of ESCC cells were inhibited when the expression of MNX1-AS1 was stably knocked-down.On the contrary,exogenously high expression of MNX1-AS1 promoted the migration and invasion ability of ESCC cells.After identifing the function of MNX1-AS1 in ESCC,we tried to explore the mechanism of its function.Based on the location in the genome with the head-to-head relationship between the encoding gene MNX1 and the lncRNA MNX1-AS1,we analyzed the correlation between the RNA levels of the two genes in the esophageal cancer tissues using TCGA database,and found a high correlation between them.Western blot preliminarily confirmed that MNX1-AS1 knockdown led to a decrease in MNX1 protein level.In conclusion,MNX1-AS1 can promote the abilities of proliferation,invasion and metastasis of ESCC cells.There is a correlation between the expression of MNX1-AS1 and its adjacent gene MNX1.