Affiliations: [a] Center for Clinical Laboratories, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China | [b] Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Clinical Laboratory Science, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China | [c] Department of Laboratory Medicine, Hunan University of Medicine, Huaihua, Hunan, China | [d] Department of Clinical Laboratory, The First Hospital Attached to Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guiyang, Guizhou, China | [e] Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Hai Huang, Center for Clinical Laboratories, The Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, No. 9 Beijing Road, Yunyan District, Guiyang, Guizhou 550004, China. E-mail: huanghai828@gmc.edu.cn.
Abstract: Recent studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have profound impacts on cancer development. In our previous study, we have confirmed that lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 16 (SNHG16) is associated with poor prognosis and malignant phenotype of gastric cancer (GC). However, the biological function of lncRNA SNHG16 is still unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the roles of SNHG16 in GC. In this work, SNHG16 knockdown could inhibit epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion of GC cells. Moreover, our results revealed that SNHG16 could promote EMT via down-regulation of Dickkopf WNT signaling pathway inhibitor 3 (DKK3) in GC cells. In addition, SNHG16 was found to be upregulated whereas DKK3 was downregulated in tumor tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. It showed that the expressions of SNHG16 and DKK3 were negatively correlated in clinical GC tissues. All these results suggested that SNHG16 promotes GC progression via regulation of DKK3 directly or indirectly. SNHG16 might be used as a putative biomarker for metastatic prediction in GC patients.
