Long non-coding RNA MVIH indicates a poor prognosis for non-small cell lung cancer and promotes cell proliferation and invasion

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as major players in governing fundamental biological processes, and many of which are misregulated in multiple cancers and likely to play a functional role in tumorigenesis. Therefore, identification of cancer-associated lncRNAs and investigation of their biological functions and molecular mechanisms are important for understanding the development and progression of cancer. lncRNA associated with microvascular invasion in HCC (lncRNA MVIH) was found to be generally upregulated in HCC. Moreover, MVIH overexpression could serve as an independent risk factor to predict poor RFS and promote tumor growth and metastasis via activating angiogenesis. However, its biological role and clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression is unknown. In this study, we found that lncRNA MVIH levels were increased in NSCLC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Its expression level was significantly correlated with TNM stages, tumor size, and lymph node metastasis. Moreover, patients with high levels of MVIH expression had a relatively poor prognosis. Furthermore, knockdown of MVIH expression by siRNA could inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, while ectopic expression of MVIH promoted cell proliferation and invasion in NSCLC cells partly via regulating MMP2 and MMP9 protein expression. Our findings present that increased lncRNA MVIH could be identified as a poor prognostic biomarker in NSCLC and regulate cell proliferation and invasion.