Higher expression of ZFAS1 is associated with poor prognosis in malignant melanoma and promotes cell proliferation and invasion

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) ZFAS1 had been reported in several tumors, however, the clinical role and biological function of ZFAS1 expression level in malignant melanoma (MM) is not well studied. In the study, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) methods were used to assess the expression levels of ZFAS1 in 88 cases of malignant melanoma tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues in MM patients. The ability of MM cell proliferation was analyzed by CCK8 cell proliferation assay. Western-blot analysis detected the expression of cell proliferation associated protein Ki67, PCNA and Cyclin D1. Our results demonstrated that the expression levels of ZFAS1 were significantly increased in MM tissues compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues and the higher ZFAS1 expression levels were correlated with tumor thickness, lymph node metastasis, and tumor stages in patients. Moreover, patients who had higher ZFAS1 expression predicted shorted disease-free survival time (DFS) or over survival (OS). Multivariate Cox analysis showed that tumor thickness, lymph node metastasis, tumor stages and ZFAS1 expression were independent risks for prognosis in MM patients. After knockdown of ZFAS1, the results showed that the cell proliferation was inhibited in sk-mel-1 and A375 cells. Thus, the results suggested that ZFAS1 could be used as a potential biomarker for prognosis and a therapeutic target for MM patients.