Long noncoding RNA HOXD-AS1 regulates proliferation of cervical cancer cells by activating Ras/ERK signaling pathway

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of HOXD cluster antisense RNA 1 (HOXD-AS1) in cervical cancer and its underlying mechanism. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to examine the expression of HOXD-AS1 in human cervical cancer tissues. x2-test was used for analyzing the association of HOXD-AS1 expression and clinical parameters. Cell viability, colony formation capacity, and phosphorylation of extracellular regulated protein kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) in treated HeLa and CaSki cells were detected by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, colony formation assay, and Western blot analysis, respectively. RESULTS: The results indicated that HOXD-AS1 was upregulated in cervical cancer cells significantly. Meanwhile, HOXD-AS1 expression was involved in tumor-node-metastasis stages, lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, as well as recurrence. HOXD-AS1 knockdown remarkably suppressed cervical cancer cell proliferation, colony formation capacity, and the Ras/ERK signaling pathway in vitro. Furthermore, xenograft assays confirmed the results in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Our data elucidate that silencing HOXD-AS1 remarkably suppresses cell growth by inactivating the Ras/ERK pathway in cervical cancer, providing a more detailed understanding of cervical cancer pathogenesis and providing a possible theoretical foundation for long non-coding RNA for the diagnosis and therapy for cervical cancer.