High long non-coding RNA NORAD expression predicts poor prognosis and promotes breast cancer progression by regulating TGF- pathway

BackgroundTo investigate the expression and significance of long noncoding RNA NORAD (lncRNA-NORAD) in breast cancer.MethodsQ-PCR was adopted to detect the mRNA expression of lncRNA-NORAD in breast cancer and adjacent tissues, survival analysis to compare the low-expression groups with the Kaplan-Meier method. Knockout of lncRNA-NORAD was adopted to observe the effects on the cell proliferation, migration and invasion of breast cancer in vitro and in vivo. The TGF-/RUNX2 signaling pathway was observed by Western blot after the knockout of lncRNA-NORAD.ResultsIncreased expression of lncRNA-NORAD in breast cancer tissues promotes proliferation, invasion and migration of breast cancer cells and correlated with worse prognosis. LncRNA-NORAD activated TGF-/RUNX2 signaling pathway in breast cancer cells.ConclusionsThese results strongly suggested that lncRNA-NORAD might play an important role in breast cancer progression and potentially be a new therapeutic target.