The long non-coding RNA antisense 1 ADAMTS9-AS1 has been reported to predict the survival in several tumors, including bladder cancer and breast cancer. However, the clinical significance and biological behaviors of ADAMTS9-AS1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) have not been reported yet. In this study, the expression of ADAMTS9-AS1 was measured in CRC tissues and cell lines using quantitative real-time PCR analysis. The clinical significance of ADAMTS9-AS1 was evaluated with Chi-squared test, Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis in CRC patients. CCK8 assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry and transwell assay were used to explore the biological function of ADAMTS9-AS1 knockdown in CRC cell lines (SW1116 and HT29). We further explore the role of ADAMTS9-AS1 in vivo though xenograft tumor assay. Our data showed that ADAMTS9-AS1 expression level was significantly up-regulated in CRC tissues and cell lines compared with corresponding controls. High ADAMTS9-AS1 level was associated with TNM stage, lymph node invasion and worse survival prognosis. Depletion of ADAMTS9-AS1 significantly suppressed cell proliferation, G1/S transition, migration and invasion, as well as suppressed CDK4/Cyclin D1 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). To sum up, these findings illustrated that ADAMTS9-AS1 might be a promising therapeutic target and prognostic factor for CRC.
Keywords: ADAMTS9-AS1; CRC; EMT; G1/S transition; Prognosis; Proliferation.