Long Noncoding RNA Bladder Cancer Associated Transcript 1 Promotes the Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion of Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Through Sponging miR-144

Nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a type of malignant tumor, accounting for 80% of all lung cancer morbidity. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) BLACAT1 (bladder cancer associated transcript 1), also known as linc-UBC1, has been tested to be an oncogenic lncRNA in other cancers. However, the role of BLACAT1 in NSCLC is still unknown. In clinical study, BLACAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in 48 cases of NSCLC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues, especially in pathological TNM III samples. In NSCLC cells, BLACAT1 expression was also upregulated. Both in vivo and in vitro, BLACAT1 silencing transfected with si-BLACAT1 could suppress proliferation, migration, and invasion, and induce G0/G1 phase arrest. Bioinformatics methods and luciferase reporter assay revealed the close link within miR-144 and BLACAT1 3-untranslated region (UTR). Furthermore, combining experiments of miR-144 and BLACAT1 indicated that miR-144 could reverse the function of BLACAT1 on NSCLC cells' phenotype. Overall, this study reveals the overexpression of BLACAT1 in NSCLC tissue and cells, and discovers the oncogenic role of BLACAT1 in NSCLC genesis through sponging miR-144, providing a potential biomarker for early detection and prognosis prediction of NSCLC.