Upregulated LncRNA‐CCAT1 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression by functioning as miR‐30c‐2‐3p sponge

摘要

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer‐related death over the world. It is well studied that long noncoding RNA colon cancer–associated transcript‐1 (CCAT1) played important roles in variety of cancers promoting cell proliferation and metastasis by acting as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) of microRNAs. However, whether CCAT1 could regulate HCC by serving as a ceRNA of microRNA remains to be revealed. In this study, we demonstrated that CCAT1 was highly expressed in HCC tissues and remarkably associated with metastasis. With a bioinformatics prediction and functional assay validation, we found a binding site of miR‐30c‐2‐3p on CCAT1, which was important for CCAT1 to promote cell proliferation. Interestingly, we further revealed a novel recognition site for miR‐30c‐2‐3p on the 3′UTR of CCNE1 by mutative method, luciferase assay, and cell viability confirmation. In general, CCAT1 regulate the expression of CCNE1 by acting as a ceRNA to sponge miR‐30c‐2‐3p in regulating the cell proliferation of HCC. These results suggest that CCAT1 may be a new therapy target for HCC in the future. Significance of the study Our findings may broaden the understanding of the role of CCAT1 in tumorigenesis and may provide a new therapy target for HCC.