LncRNA FAM83A-AS1 promotes epithelial–mesenchymal transition of pancreatic cancer cells via Hippo pathway

ABSTRACTBackground Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proved to play a vital role in pancreatic cancer (PC). However, the role of lncRNA FAM83A-AS1 in PC remains unclear. In this study, we explored the biological function and underlying mechanism of FAM83A-AS1 in PC cells.Methods The FAM83A-AS1 expression was assessed via public databases and validated by qRT-PCR. The biofunction and immune cell infiltration of FAM83A-AS1 were analyzed through GO, KEGG, GESA and ssGSEA. The migration, invasion and proliferation abilities of PC cells were examined by Transwell, wound healing, CCK8 and colony formation. The EMT and Hippo pathway markers were evaluated by western blot.Results FAM83A-AS1 expression was higher in PC tissues and cells than normal. Additionally, FAM83A-AS1 was associated with poor prognosis of PC and involved in cadherin binding and immune infiltration. Subsequently, we proved FAM83A-AS1 overexpression enhanced the migration, invasion and proliferation abilities of PC cells, whereas FAM83A-AS1 downregulation inhibited those. Moreover, western blot results showed that FAM83A-AS1 knockdown increased the E-cadherin expression and decreased the expression of N-cadherin, β-catenin, Vimentin, Snail and Slug. On the contrary, FAM83A-AS1 upregulation results in the opposite effects. Besides, FAM83A-AS1 overexpression inhibited the expression of p-YAP, p-MOB1, p-Lats1, SAV1, MST1 and MST2 as well as the results of FAM83A-AS1 knockdown were opposite.Conclusion FAM83A-AS1 promoted EMT of PC cells via Hippo signaling inactivation and may be a potential diagnosis and prognosis target.KEYWORDS: FAM83A-AS1proliferationEMTHippopancreatic cancer Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Data availability statementThe authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.Author ContributionsAll authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Huizhi Wang, Yuntao Ding, Qiuming Zhu, Zhengyue Yu and Qi Wang. Aihua Gong and Min Xu designed the experiment. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Huizhi Wang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Additional informationFundingThis study was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China [82072754]; Research Project of Jiangsu Health and Health Commission [M2020011]; Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program, China [BE2018689]; Zhenjiang Key Research and Development Program, China [SH2018033]; Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province [KYCX22_3711].