Long non-coding RNA LINK-A promotes glioma cell growth and invasion via lactate dehydrogenase A

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently been identified in mammals as new modulators of cancer origin and progression participating in various cellular pro-cesses. Long intergenic non-coding RNA for kinase activation (LINK-A), belonging to one of the intergenic lncRNAs, was reported to regulate signaling pathways correlated with triple-negative breast cancer. However, the expression and the functional role of LINK-A in glioma are still unclear. In the present study, we demonstrated that LINK-A was upregulated in human glioma cells compared with the expression noted in normal astrocytes. Knockdown of LINK-A inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion in U87 and U251 glioma cells. In addition, we found that lactate dehydrogenase A (LDH-A) was regulated by LINK-A, and enforced expression of LDH-A promoted glycolysis and proliferation in glioma cells. More importantly, we found that LDH-A was involved in the LINK-A-mediated proliferation and invasion of glioma cells. Collectively, these results provide new evidence of an important role for LINK-A in the development of glioma.