LncRNA CDKN2B­AS1 sponges miR­28­5p to regulate proliferation and inhibit apoptosis in colorectal cancer.

ABSTRACT

Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) CDKN2B­antisense RNA 1 (AS1) functions as a tumor oncogene in numerous cancers. However, the roles and mechanism of CDKN2B­AS1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) have not been explored. The present study aimed to investigate whether and how CDKN2B­AS1 contributes to CRC progression. The data revealed that CDKN2B­AS1 expression was upregulated in CRC tissues. Loss­of­function assays demonstrated that CDKN2B­AS1 in CRC modulated cell proliferation and apoptosis, which was mediated by cyclin D1, cyclin­dependent kinase (CDK) 4, p­Rb, caspase­9 and caspase­3. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assays indicated direct binding of microRNA (miR)­28­5p to CDKN2B­AS1. Moreover, the results herein revealed that the expression of miR­28­5p was negatively correlated with that of CDKN2B­AS1 in CRC tissue. Moreover, CDKN2B­AS1 acted as a miR­28­5p competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to target and regulate the expression of URGCP. These findings indicated that CDKN2B­AS1 plays roles in CRC progression, providing a potential therapeutic target or novel diagnostic biomarker for CRC.