Down-regulation of LINC00341 predicts a poor prognosis and acts as a tumor suppressor in gastric cancer

Accumulating evidence has suggested that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in tumor cell development and in the progression of human cancer. However, the significance and role of most lncRNAs, especially long intergenic ncRNAs (lincRNAs, the main type of lncRNAs), in gastric cancer is unclear. This study aimed to identify the clinical significance and potential biological function of LINC00341 in gastric cancer. Here, a qRT-PCR assay indicated that the relative expression level of LINC00341 were significantly down-regulated in gastric cancer tissues compared to matched adjacent normal tissues. Levels of LINC00341 in gastric cancer cell lines (MGC-803, BGC-823 and SGC-7901) were also significantly lower than in human normal gastric epithelial cell (GES-1). Patient with low LINC00341 expression were found to be negatively correlated with the TNM stage and lymph node metastasis. A Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that low expression of LINC00341 was significantly correlated with shorter overall survival (OS) of gastric cancer patients. Furthermore, an in vitro assay indicated that the over-expression of LINC00341 inhibited cell growth and migration and induced cell apoptosis in gastric cancer. In summary, this study provides the first evidence that the down-regulation of LINC00341 predicts a poor prognosis and acts as a tumor suppressor in the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer, indicating that LINC00341 may serve as a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.