Knockdown of lncRNA-PANDAR suppresses the proliferation, cell cycle and promotes apoptosis in thyroid cancer cells

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been found to show important regulatory roles in various human cancers. Lnc-RNA PANDAR is a novel identified lncRNA that was previously reported to show abnormal expression pattern in various cancers. However, little is known of its expression and biological function in thyroid cancer. Here, we used the quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to determine the expression of PANDAR in 64 thyroid cancer tissues. We found that expression of PANDAR was up-regulated in thyroid cancer tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues. Functional assays in vitro demonstrated that knockdown of PANDAR could inhibit proliferation, cell cycle progression, induces the apoptosis, inhibit invasion of thyroid cancer cells. Thus, our study provides evidence that PANDAR may function as a potential target for treatment for patients with thyroid cancer.