lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 12 promotes renal cell carcinoma progression by modulating the miR-200c-5p/collagen type XI α1 chain pathway

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a primary malignant kidney cancer subtype. It has been suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve important roles in the progression of kidney cancer. In fact, the lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 12 (SNHG12) was discovered to be overexpressed in various types of cancer. However, to the best of our knowledge, the role of SNHG12 in RCC remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the function of SNHG12 and its underlying molecular mechanism of action in RCC. In patient samples and datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR, demonstrated that SNHG12 expression levels were upregulated in RCC tumor tissues, but not in normal kidney tissues. SNHG12 upregulation was also observed in RCC cell lines. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated a poor prognosis for those patients with RCC who had upregulated SNHG12 expression levels. Following lentivirus transduction, SNHG12 was successfully knocked down (validated by western blot analysis) and cell migration and invasion assays were performed. SNHG12 knockdown markedly inhibited cell viability and invasion, while increasing apoptosis in both A498 and 786O cell lines. The results of the luciferase reporter assay suggested that SNHG12 exerted its role by sponging microRNA (miR)-200c-5p, which led to the upregulation of its target gene, collagen type XI α1 chain (COL11A1). This was further validated, as miR-200c-5p inhibition reduced the effects of SNHG12 downregulation on cell viability and apoptosis, without affecting SNHG12 expression levels. Furthermore, the findings indicated that SNHG12 may partially exert its role through COL11A1, which was also upregulated in RCC. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that the SNHG12/miR-200c-5p/COL11A1 axis may be crucial for RCC progression, which provided an insight into potential therapeutic strategies for RCC treatment.