LncRNA TMPO-AS1 facilitates the proliferation and metastasis of NSCLC cells by up-regulating ERBB2 via sponging miR-204-3p

INTRODUCTION: This study aims at probing into the expression and biological function of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) TMPO-AS1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and exploring its regulatory role for miR-204-3p and erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (ERBB2). METHODS: In this study, paired NSCLC samples were collected, and the expression levels of TMPO-AS1, miR-204-3p and ERBB2 were examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR); proliferative ability and colony formation ability were detected by CCK-8 assay and plate colony formation assay, respectively; flow cytometry was performed to detect the effect of TMPO-AS1 on apoptosis; Transwell assay was used to detect the changes of migration and invasion; qRT-PCR and Western blot were utilised to analyse the changes of miR-204-3p and ERBB2 regulated by TMPO-AS1; luciferase reporter gene assay and RNA immunoprecipitation assay were employed to determine the regulatory relationship between TMPO-AS1 and miR-204-3p. RESULTS: We demonstrated that TMPO-AS1 was significantly up-regulated in cancerous tissues of NSCLC samples, and positively correlated with the expression of ERBB2, while negatively correlated with miR-204-3p. After transfection of TMPO-AS1 shRNAs into NSCLC cells, the malignant phenotypes of NSCLC cells were significantly inhibited, while overexpression of TMPO-AS1 had opposite effects; TMPO-AS1 was also demonstrated to regulate the expression of miR-204-3p by sponging it, and indirectly modulate the expression of ERBB2. CONCLUSION: Collectively, we conclude that TMPO-AS1 has the potential to be the ‘ceRNA’ to regulate the expression of ERBB2 by sponging miR-204-3p in NSCLC.