The EMT-induced lncRNA NR2F1-AS1 positively modulates NR2F1 expression and drives gastric cancer via miR-29a-3p/VAMP7 axis

Deregulated lncRNAs play critical roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. NR2F1-AS1 is an antisense lncRNA of NR2F1. However, the biological function of NR2F1-AS1 in gastric cancer (GC) remains largely unclear. In this study, we revealed that NR2F1-AS1 and NR2F1 were both positively correlated with the degree of malignancy and predicted poor prognosis in two independent GC cohorts. Besides, NR2F1-AS1 and NR2F1 can respond to Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling in GC, since their expression was increased by TGF-beta treatment and decreased after stable overexpression of OVOL2 in GC cell lines. NR2F1-AS1 and NR2F1 were highly co-expressed in pan-tissues and pan-cancers. Depletion of NR2F1-AS1 compromised the expression level of NR2F1 in GC cells. Furthermore, NR2F1-AS1 knockdown inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion and G1/S transition of GC cells. More importantly, transcriptome sequencing revealed a novel ceRNA network composed of NR2F1-AS1, miR-29a-3p, and VAMP7 in GC. The overexpression of VAMP7 predicted poor prognosis in GC. Rescue assay confirmed that NR2F1-AS1 promotes GC progression through miR-29a-3p/VAMP7 axis. Our finding highlights that the aberrant expression of NR2F1-AS1 is probably due to the abnormal EMT signaling in GC. LncRNA NR2F1-AS1 plays crucial roles in GC progression by modulating miR-29a-3p/VAMP7 axis, suggesting that NR2F1-AS1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in GC.