LncRNA-MALAT1 mediates cisplatin resistance via miR-101-3p/VEGF-C pathway in bladder cancer

Cisplatin (CDDP)-based chemotherapy is a standard strategy for the clinical treatment of patients with bladder cancer (BC). However, the anti-tumor efficacy of cisplatin is affected by multiple chemoresistance with complex molecular mechanisms. Recent evidence highlights the crucial regulatory roles of metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) in the progression of cancers and development of drug resistance. However, the roles and underlying molecular mechanisms of MALAT1 in cisplatin resistance of the BC cells remain largely unclear. In this study, we firstly demonstrated that MALAT1 expression was up-regulated in the BC tissues compared to the normal adjacent tissues and elevated in the cancer cells compared to the epithelial immortalized cells. Secondly, we found that suppression of MALAT1 enhanced the chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity and inhibited the cisplatin resistance of the BC cells. Thirdly, we showed that MALAT1 affected the cisplatin resistance of the BC cells via regulating the miR-101-3p/VEGF-C pathway. In summary, this study demonstrates that MALAT1, miR-101-3p and VEGF-C form a regulatory axis to affect the chemo-resistance of BC cells to CDDP, and provides novel potential targets for treatment of BC.