Up-regulation of long non-coding RNA SPRY4-IT1 promotes tumor cell migration and invasion in lung adenocarcinoma

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important role in a variety of biological processes, and are tightly associated with tumorigenesis and cancer prognosis. However, the potential power of lncRNA signatures in predicting survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) has not been investigated. Here, we identified a four-lncRNA signature (SPRY4-IT1, LINC00941,GPR158-AS1 and KCNK15-AS1) displaying prognostic values for LUAD using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. Based on the four-lncRNA signature, the LUAD patients can be classified into high-risk and low-risk groups with significantly different survival. We further validated the expression of SPRY4-IT1 in LUAD tissues and corresponding normal lung tissues using quantitative real-time PCR in Chinese LUAD patients. The results showed that SPRY4-IT1 was significantly up-regulated in LUAD tissues. Further analysis indicated that LUAD patients with high SPRY4-IT1 expression have significantly poorer overall survival in Chinese LUAD patients. Moreover, knock-down of SPRY4-IT1 can inhibit the lung cancer cell migration and invasion. The present work indicated that SPRY4-IT1 may play a pivotal role in promoting tumor migration and invasion in LUAD. Our work implicates the promising effect of SPRY4-IT1 on the prognosis of LUAD.