MicroRNA-155 downregulates long noncoding RNA prostate cancer-associated transcript 29 in hepatocellular carcinoma to suppress cancer cell invasion and migration

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) prostate cancer-associated transcript 29 (PCAT29) is known to suppress several cancers, but its participation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains elusive. This study tried to explore PCAT29 function in HCC. In this study, a total of 62 HCC patients were enrolled. Tissue samples were collected from all 62 patients to isolate RNA samples. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was applied for the expression analysis of PCAT29 and microRNA-155 (miR-155) in these tissue samples. The 62 HCC patients were followed up for 5 years to explore the prognostic value of PCAT29 for HCC. Correlations were analyzed using linear regression. IntaRNA 2.0 was used to predict the interaction between PCAT29 and miR-155. The role of PCAT29 and miR-155 in regulating HCC cell invasion and migration was evaluated by Transwell assay. We found that PCAT29 expression was downregulated in HCC and miR-155 expression was upregulated in HCC compared to nontumor samples (p < 0.001). Downregulation of PCAT29 was found to be closely associated with poor survival of HCC patients. MiR-155 was inversely correlated with PCAT29. It was predicted that miR-155 could target PCAT29. In HCC cells, miR-155 overexpression resulted in reduced PCAT29 expression (p < 0.05). MiR-155 counteracted the inhibitory effects of PCAT29 overexpression on HCC cell migration and invasion. These results suggest that PCAT29 may be a potential prognostic biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for treating HCC.