ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the driving effect of prostate cancer associated transcript 4 (PCAT4) on the up-regulation of upregulator of cell proliferation (URGCP) expression in breast cancer progression through sponging miR-508-5p.Methods:The microarray data of lncRNA and miRNA with differential expression in breast cancer tissue were analyzed by Cancer Genome Atlas. The expression of PCAT4 in breast cancer was evaluated by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Cell proliferation was measured by MTT and colony formation, cell apoptosis was analyzed by TUNEL, and cell migration and invasion were analyzed by Transwell. The correlation between PCAT4 and miR-508-5p, and miR-508-5p and URGCP was analyzed by RNA pull-down and double luciferase assay. Tumor xenograft studies were performed to analyze the correlation between PCAT4/miR-508-5p/URGCP axis and breast cancer cell growth in vivo. Measurement data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation ( ± s). T-test was used for comparison between two groups, and one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison between multiple groups. The correlation between PCAT4 and URGCP and miR-508-5p expression was evaluated by Pearson correlation analysis. Results:The expression level of PCAT4 was up-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cells. Knockout of PCAT4 inhibited cell proliferation and metastasis and promoted cell apoptosis. miR-508-5p was the target of PCAT4 and was negatively correlated with PCAT4. Overexpression of miR-508-5p in breast cancer can inhibit cell growth, migration and invasion, and promote cell apoptosis. URGCP is the target of miR-508-5p and induces progression of breast cancer. Tumor xenograft studies showed that PCAT4 drives breast cancer progression by affecting miR-508-5p/URGCP.Conclusion:The expression of PCAT4 is up-regulated in breast cancer tissues and cells, and PCAT4 can act as a molecular sponge of miR-508-5p, and significantly promote breast cancer progression by activating URGCP protein expression.
