LncRNA MONC suppresses the malignant phenotype of Endometrial Cancer Stem Cells and Endometrial Carcinoma Cells by regulating the MiR-636/GLCE axis

BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence shows that abnormal expression of long non-coding RNA is involved in the occurrence and development of various tumors. LncRNA MONC is abnormally expressed in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and acute megakaryocytic leukemia, but the biological function and potential regulatory mechanism of MONC in endometrial cancer stem cells (ECSCs) and endometrial cancer cells (ECCs) have not been studied. In this study, we aimed to explore the tumor suppressive effect and mechanism of MONC in regulating ECSCs and ECCs. METHODS: We used qRT-PCR to detect the expression of MONC, miR-636 and GLCE in normal human endometrial tissues and endometrial carcinoma (EC) tissues. Luciferase assay was used to verify the binding sites between MONC and miR-636 and between miR-636 and GLCE. Double fluorescence in situ hybridization was used to locate MONC and miR-636 in cells. ECSCs were obtained by flow cytometry sorting assay. Sphere formation assay, CCK-8 assay, transwell invasion assay, cell cycle analysis and apoptosis assay were used to detect the effects of MONC/miR-636/GLCE axis on the malignant biological behavior of ECSCs and ECCs. The effect of MONC on the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process was detected using western blot. Finally, we conducted in vivo verification through Tumor xenografts in BALB/C nude mice. RESULTS: In this study, we found MONC is low expression in endometrial carcinoma (EC) and patients in the MONC high-expression group had a better prognosis. MONC and miR-636 are relatively co-localized in the cytoplasm. MONC directly inhibits the malignant biological behavior of ECSCs and ECCs by directly inhibiting miR-636. Simultaneously, miR-636 may indirectly reduce the expression of MONC. Down-regulation of miR-636 may promote GLCE expression by targeting the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of the downstream gene GLCE, thereby inhibiting the progression of ECSCs. MONC combined with miR-636 inhibited tumor epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. In addition, we verified the tumor suppressive effect of MONC in nude mice, miR-636 can rescue the tumor suppressive effect of overexpressing MONC. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, this study showed that MONC inhibits the malignant phenotypes of ECSCs and ECCs by regulating the miR-636/GLCE axis. Thus the MONC/miR-636/GLCE axis may provide novel treatment avenues for human EC. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-01911-1.