LINC00441 promotes cervical cancer progression by modulating miR-450b-5p/RAB10 axis

Abstract Background As one of the most common gynaecological malignant tumors, cervical cancer (CC) has become an important public health issue. Emerging evidence has revealed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial regulators of biological functions in cancers, including CC. And the oncogenic role of LINC00441 has been verified in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). But the molecular mechanism and biological functions of LINC00441 in CC remain unknown. Methods qRT-PCR analysis detected the expression of genes in CC tissues or cells. CCK-8, colony formation, flow cytometry, transwell, western blot assays as well as animal studies were conducted to analyze the function of LINC00441 in CC. Luciferase reporter, RIP and RNA pull down assays were applied to verify the binding relations among the indicated genes. Results LINC00441 was upregulated in CC tissues and cells. Further, LINC00441 depletion repressed cell proliferation and motility in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. LINC00441 could sponge miR-450b-5p to upregulate RAB10 expression. Finally, miR-450b-5p inhibitor or RAB10 upregulation counteracted LINC00441 knockdown-mediated function on the development of CC. Conclusions LINC00441 drives CC progression by targeting miR-450b-5p/RAB10 axis, which might provide new idea for researching CC-related molecular mechanism.