Silencing of LncRNA HULC Enhances Chemotherapy Induced Apoptosis in Human Gastric Cancer

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancers in the world; however, chemoresistance greatly decreases the efficacy of therapy in gastric cancer. Long noncoding RNAs (IncRNAs) participate in a variety of biological processes, and we hypothesize that lncRNA HULC regulates the multidrug resistance in GC treatment. METHODS: We obtained GC tissue samples from 42 GC patients and detected the expression level of HULC in the plasma and tissues via qRT-PCR. The relationship between HULC expression and survival rate was confirmed by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. We verified the expression of HULC in GC cell lines via qRT-PCR, and the function of HULC was detected via flow cytometry assay and CCK-8 assay. RESULTS: HULC was highly expressed in the plasma and tissues of the GC patients compared with controls, with HULC high expression indicating lower survival rate. HULC knockdown enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis in GC cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that silencing lncRNA HULC could enhance chemotherapy induced apoptosis in GC cells, which could provide a novel approach for therapeutic strategies.