LINC00958 Inhibits Autophagy of Bladder Cancer Cells via Sponge Adsorption of miR-625-5p to Promote Tumor Angiogenesis and Oxidative Stress

OBJECTIVE: This study further explored LINC00958's role in promoting tumor angiogenesis (AG) and oxidative stress (OS) development by inhibiting BC cell autophagy through sponge adsorption of miR-625-5p. METHODS: BC patients and healthy controls who visited our hospital between June 2017 and February 2019 were selected as the research group (RG) and the control group (CG), respectively, with a total of 133 study subjects. Peripheral blood LINC00958 and miR-625-5p in both cohorts of participants were detected. Additionally, human bladder transitional cell carcinoma cells (T24 and J82) and human normal urothelial cells (SV-HUC-1) were purchased. Alterations in cell biological behavior were observed after transfecting miR-625-5p-mimics, miR-625-5p-inhibition, and miR-625-5p-NC sequences into these cells, respectively. Besides, ELISA was performed to quantify inflammatory factors (IFs), AG indicators, and OS indexes in cells. Subsequently, a double luciferase reporter (DLR) assay was performed to verify the targeting relationship between LINC00958 and miR-625-5p. Finally, BALB/c-nu nude mice were purchased, and T24 cells transfected with silenced LINC00958 and miR-625-5p expression sequences were used to establish subcutaneous tumors to observe tumor growth and pathological changes. RESULTS: RG exhibited higher LINC00958 and lower miR-625-5p than CG. LINC00958 and miR-625-5p were strongly linked to myometrial invasion (MI), lymph node metastasis (LNM), distant metastasis (DM), and histology in BC patients, and the increase of LINC00958 and the decrease of miR-625-5p predicted an increased risk of prognostic death in such patients. After miR-625-5p inhibition, the capacity of BC cells to proliferate, invade, and migrate enhanced and the AG, inflammatory response, and OS injury increased, while the apoptosis rate and autophagy ability decreased. The DLR assay revealed inhibited LINC00958WT fluorescence activity by miR-625-5p-mimics, while the biological behavior of BC cells cotransfected with sh-LINC00958 and miR-625-5p-inhibition had no difference with the functions of sh-control and miR-625-5p-NC cotransfected cells. Finally, the nude mouse tumorigenesis experiment showed that the tumor mass, volume, and histopathological features of the sh-LINC00958 group were decreased compared with the sh-control group, while those of the miR-625-5p-inhibition group were increased versus miR-625-5p-NC. CONCLUSIONS: In BC, LINC00958 is highly expressed while miR-625-5p is underexpressed. LINC00958 can inhibit cell autophagy to enhance cell activity; promote OS, inflammation, and AG; and regulate tumor immunity by targeting miR-625-5p, thus participating in the development of BC.