Long non-coding RNA LINC01559 exerts oncogenic role via enhancing autophagy in lung adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been verified to play fatal role in regulating the progression of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Although lncRNAs play important role in regulating the autophagy of tumor cells, the function and molecular mechanism of LINC01559 in regulating lung cancer development remain to be elucidated. METHOD AND MATERIALS: In this study, we used bioinformatics to screen out autophagy-related lncRNAs from TCGA-LUAD repository. Then the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression was applied to establish the signature of autophagy-related lncRNAs so that clinical characteristics and survival in LUAD patients be evaluated. Finally, we selected the most significant differences lncRNA, LINC01559, to verify its function in regulating LUAD progression in vitro. RESULTS: We found high expression of LINC01559 indicates lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis. Besides, LINC01559 promotes lung cancer cell proliferation and migration in vitro, by enhancing autophagy signal pathway via sponging hsa-miR-1343-3p. CONCLUSION: We revealed a novel prognostic model based on autophagy-related lncRNAs, and provide a new therapeutic target and for patients with lung adenocarcinoma named LINC01559. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-021-02338-4.