Long noncoding RNA SNHG4 promotes the malignant progression of hepatocellular carcinoma through the miR‐211‐5p/CREB5 axis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main death‐leading malignant tumors which deserve in‐depth explorations to uncover the underlying molecular mechanisms. Plenty of proofs have revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in malignancy and progression of HCC. Nevertheless, the definite role of lncRNA‐SNHG4 in HCC remains vague. METHODS: To figure out the role of SNHG4 in HCC, the bioinformatics analysis and functional assays and in vivo assay were performed. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrated that the data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) displayed that the higher expression of lncRNA SNHG4 was detected in HCC tissues, which predicted the poor prognosis. The upregulation of SNHG4 was positively associated with worse clinicopathological characteristics. The functional experiments were performed to identify the role of SNHG4 in HCC. We found that SNHG4 enhanced the proliferative, migratory and invasive capacities of HCC cell line, and facilitated the tumor growth in vivo. A series of follow‐up studies have shown that SNHG4 promoted the progression and malignancy of HCC through upregulating CREB5 via sponging miR‐211‐5p. CONCLUSION: Collectively, the above findings suggest that SNHG4 promotes HCC malignancy through the SNHG4/miR‐211‐5p/CREB5 axis, providing potential therapeutic targets and prognostic factors for HCC. HIGHLIGHTS: SNHG4 is overexpressed in HCC and correlated with the poor clinical characteristics. SNHG4 promotes the malignant progression of HCC by reducing miR‐211‐5p expression. MiR‐211‐5p inhibits CREB5 expression in HCC. The oncogenic effect of SNHG4 in HCC can be reversed by CREB5 silencing.