Long non-coding RNA mortal obligate RNA transcript inhibits the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells by inactivating transforming growth factor β1

Long non-coding (lnc)RNA mortal obligate RNA transcript (MORT) is inhibited in numerous types of cancer in humans, indicating its role as a tumor suppressor. The present study demonstrated downregulation of lncRNA MORT in the tumor tissues of patients with colon cancer. The expression of MORT in tumor tissues was linearly associated with its expression levels in plasma. Low MORT expression was associated with low overall survival rate. Moreover, the overexpression of MORT resulted in decreased, whereas treatment with transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) resulted in increased, invasion and migration rates of colon cancer cells. In addition, TGF-β1 treatment attenuated the inhibitory effect of MORT overexpression on the invasion and migration rates of colon cancer cells. The overexpression of MORT inhibited TGF-β1 expression in colon cancer cells, whereas treatment with TGF-β1 failed to affect the expression of the lncRNA. Therefore, it is postulated that MORT inhibits invasion and migration colon cancer cells by inactivating TGF-β1.