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Increased expression of long noncoding RNA GAS6‐AS2 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis of melanoma cells via upregulating GAS6 expression
Author(s) -
Wen Li,
Zheng Yuanquan,
Wen Xiaoyi,
Zhang Yitian,
Zeng Weihui
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iubmb life
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.132
H-Index - 113
eISSN - 1521-6551
pISSN - 1521-6543
DOI - 10.1002/iub.2071
Subject(s) - gas6 , melanoma , cancer research , protein kinase b , gene knockdown , biology , apoptosis , mapk/erk pathway , long non coding rna , ectopic expression , cell growth , signal transduction , rna , microbiology and biotechnology , cell culture , receptor tyrosine kinase , gene , biochemistry , genetics
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are frequently aberrantly expressed and involved in many cancers, including melanoma. GAS6‐AS2 was a recently identified cancer‐related lncRNA. However, the expression, roles, and functional mechanisms of GAS6‐AS2 in melanoma remain unknown. In this study, we found that lncRNA GAS6‐AS2 is significantly elevated in melanoma tissues and cells. Elevated expression of GAS6‐AS2 is positively correlated with advanced stages and poor prognosis in melanoma. Functional assays demonstrated that ectopic expression of GAS6‐AS2 promotes proliferation and inhibits apoptosis of melanoma cells. In contrast, knockdown of GAS6‐AS2 inhibits proliferation and promotes apoptosis of melanoma cells. Furthermore, in vivo functional assays showed that GAS6‐AS2 promotes melanoma xenograft growth. Mechanistically, we found that GAS6‐AS2 upregulates GAS6 expression, promotes GAS6 secretion, and activates AXL/AKT/ERK signals. The expression of GAS6 was positively correlated with that of GAS6‐AS2 in melanoma tissues. In addition, deficiency of GAS6 reverses the biological roles of GAS6‐AS2 overexpression in melanoma cell proliferation and apoptosis. Collectively, our data identified GAS6‐AS2 as an oncogenic lncRNA in melanoma via activation of GAS6/AXL/AKT/ERK signals. Our data suggested that GAS6‐AS2 may be a novel potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for melanoma.