Exosomal lncRNA DOCK9-AS2 derived from cancer stem cell-like cells activated Wnt/β-catenin pathway to aggravate stemness, proliferation, migration, and invasion in papillary thyroid carcinoma

Exosomal long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial factors that mediate the extracellular communication in tumor microenvironment. DOCK9 antisense RNA2 (DOCK9-AS2) is an exosomal lncRNA which has not been investigated in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Based on the result of differentially expressed lncRNAs in PTC via bioinformatics databases, we discovered that DOCK9-AS2 was upregulated in PTC, and presented elevation in plasma exosomes of PTC patients. Functionally, DOCK9-AS2 knockdown reduced proliferation, migration, invasion, epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) and stemness in PTC cells. PTC-CSCs transmitted exosomal DOCK9-AS2 to improve stemness of PTC cells. Mechanistically, DOCK9-AS2 interacted with SP1 to induce catenin beta 1 (CTNNB1) transcription and sponged microRNA-1972 (miR-1972) to upregulate CTNNB1, thereby activating Wnt/β-catenin pathway in PTC cells. In conclusion, PTC-CSCs-derived exosomal lncRNA DOCK9-AS2 activated Wnt/β-catenin pathway to aggravate PTC progression, indicating that DOCK9-AS2 was a potential target for therapies in PTC.