Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 promotes tumor development and metastasis through targeting miR-224-5p in malignant melanoma.

Abstract

Melanoma is one of the most ordinary malignant tumors. Recent studies have revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the progression of tumorigenesis. This work aims to identify how lncRNA NEAT1 functions in the progression of melanoma. NEAT1 expression of both melanoma patients' tissue samples and cell lines was detected by Real Time-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR). Moreover, the function of NEAT1 was identified by performing the proliferation and transwell assay in vitro. Besides, the underlying mechanism was explored through the Luciferase assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. In addition, tumor formation and metastasis assays were also conducted in vivo. In this research, NEAT1 expression was significantly higher in melanoma tissues compared with that in skin tissues with the melanocytic nevus. Cell proliferation and invasion of melanoma were inhibited after the knockdown of NEAT1 in vitro. Moreover, the results of further experiments revealed that microRNA-224-5p (miR-224-5p) was upregulated via the knockdown of NEAT1 and was also a direct target of NEAT1 in melanoma. Furthermore, tumor formation and metastasis of melanoma were inhibited via the knockdown of NEAT1 in nude mice. Our study suggests that NEAT1 enhances melanoma cell proliferation and metastasis via sponging miR-224-5p in vitro and in vivo.