Long Non-coding RNA LINC00941 as a Potential Biomarker Promotes the Proliferation and Metastasis of Gastric Cancer

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is a considerable global health burden. Accumulating evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are aberrantly expressed in many cancers and play important roles in GC. However, only a few lncRNAs have been functionally characterized. In this study, we identified that long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 941 (<i>LINC00941</i>) is a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA), and we found that the expression of <i>LINC00941</i> is associated with tumor depth and distant metastasis in GC. Furthermore, functional enrichment analysis of <i>LINC00941</i> co-expression network demonstrated that <i>LINC00941</i> might be an essential regulator of tumor metastasis and cancer cell proliferation. To validate our findings, we utilized the loss-of-function analysis to reveal the biological function of <i>LINC00941</i> in GC cells. Loss-of-function analysis revealed that silence of <i>LINC00941</i> inhibits GC cells proliferation, migration, and invasion <i>in vitro</i> and modulates tumor growth <i>in vivo</i>. Our findings confirmed that <i>LINC00941</i> plays an important oncogenic function in GC and may serve as a potential biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of GC.