LncRNA DHRS4-AS1 ameliorates hepatocellular carcinoma by suppressing proliferation and promoting apoptosis via miR-522-3p/SOCS5 axis

Recent years have seen much effect in revealing the pathological association between lncRNA and HCC. Herein, we identified lncRNA DHRS4-AS1 as a potential tumor suppressor in HCC. Firstly, it was discovered that DHRS4-AS1 was significantly down-regulated in HCC tissues compared to normal tissues based on the database TCGA. It was also detected in a lower-than-usual expression quantity in HCC tissues we collected and HCC cell lines. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that high expression of DHRS4-AS1 contributed to higher overall survival rate of HCC patients.DHRS4-AS1 expression was significantly correlated to tumor size (P = 0.02) and TNM stage (P = 0.045). CCK-8, BrdU and colony-forming assays collectively demonstrated that overexpression of DHRS4-AS1 significantly restrained HCC cell proliferation. In vivo xenograft animal experiment showed that DHRS4-AS1 could efficiently preclude the tumor growth of HCC. Further investigation performed using flow cytometry and western blot showed that DHRS4-AS1 exerted its effects by accelerating cell apoptosis and capturing cell cycle in G0/G1 phase. Our study subsequently lucubrated that miR-522-3p was a negative target of DHRS4-AS1. Increased expression level of miR-522-3p was examined in HCC tissues and cell lines. Similarly, miR-522-3p mimics could reverse the inhibitory effect on HCC brought by DHRS4-AS1. SOCS5 was then discovered as a down-stream target of miR-522-3p, which suggested that SOCS5 participated in DHRS4-AS1/miR-522-3p axis to collectively mediate the development of HCC. Our study provides lncRNA DHRS4-AS1/miR-522-3p/SOCS5 axis as a novel target for HCC therapeutic strategy with potentiality.