Background: Long intergenic noncoding RNA regulator of reprogramming (linc-ROR) is a novel long noncoding RNA that exhibits significant effects on cancer progression. This research presented that linc-ROR had a crucial part in promoting biological characteristics associated with worse prognosis in colon cancer. Method: Bioinformatics analysis was performed to predict signaling pathways related to linc-ROR. In addition, western blot, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, RNA-pulldown, cell proliferation assays, colony formation assays, wound healing assays, and transwell assays were applied to detect the role and regulation of particular molecules. Results: Our results showed that the knockdown of linc-ROR reduced cell invasion, proliferative ability, and migration in colon cancer. Further evaluation verified that downregulating linc-ROR inhibited the activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. In addition, cbl-b, a kind of E3 ubiquitin ligase that increases the degradation of EGFR, was found to be a potential linc-ROR target. Conclusions: Based on our findings, it was presented that linc-ROR served a role as a tumor-promoting factor via repressing the ubiquitination and degradation of EGFR signaling, which indicated that it could be a possible prognostic marker and therapeutic target for colon cancer.
Keywords: EGFR; cbl-b; colon cancer; linc-ROR; tumor progression.