Recently, an increasing number of reports have revealed that long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) play important roles in a variety of aspects of cell activity, and their aberrant expression is closely associated with multigenetic diseases, including carcinoma. In the present study, through microarray analysis, we screened out a new LncRNA (LncRNA-AP001631.9), which was regulated by FOXM1, a well-known carcinogenetic factor and aimed to reveal the functional roles of this novel LncRNA in gastric cancer development. The data from qRT-PCR confirmed that the expression level of LncRNA-AP001631.9 was positively correlated with that of FOXM1. The transwell and wound healing assays indicated that LncRNA-AP001631.9 was required for the migration of gastric cancer cells. The downregulation of LncRNA-AP001631.9 by small interference RNA suppressed the migratory ability of MGC803 and AGS cells, while the overexpression of LncRNA-AP001631.9 promoted the movement of BGC823 and SGC7901 cells. Furthermore, a tail vein injection was administered, and the obtained results suggested that LncRNA-AP001631.9 contributed to the distant metastasis of SGC7901 cells. Moreover, we also collected 36 paired samples of gastric cancer tissues to explore the expression levels of LncRNA-AP001631.9. The qRT-PCR data indicated that the LncRNA-AP001631.9 expression was frequently increased in gastric cancer tissues. Taken together, our findings established that LncRNA-AP001631.9 plays critical roles in gastric cancer progression and can serve as a potential new target for the treatment of gastric cancer.
Keywords: FoxM1; LncRNA; cell migration; gastric cancer.