lncRNA nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 promotes cell proliferation and invasion by targeting miR-186-5p/HIF-1α in osteosarcoma

Increasing evidence shows that the long noncoding RNA nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) plays important roles in tumor progression. However, the function and the underlying mechanism of NEAT1 in osteosarcoma (OS) remain unclear. In the present study, we found that NEAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in OS tissues and cell lines. High NEAT1 expression was closely associated with advanced clinicopathologic features and poor overall survival of patients with OS. Using in vitro function assay, we found that NEAT1 could promote the proliferation, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of OS cells. NEAT1 could also promote OS cell growth in vivo. In addition, our studies showed that miR-186-5p was a downstream target of NEAT1 in OS. Functionally, miR-186-5p suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and EMT process of OS cells. Furthermore, our data revealed that HIF-1 alpha was a downstream target of miR-186-5p and that NEAT1 could exert its tumor oncogenic roles on OS cells via the miR-186-5p/HIF-1 alpha axis. Taking our results together, we elucidated that the NEAT1/miR-186-5p/HIF-1 alpha axis might be a therapeutic approach for the treatment of OS.