Long Noncoding RNA CCAT2 Knockdown Suppresses Tumorous Progression by Sponging miR-424 in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the one of most common gynecological malignant tumors with high mortality. A series of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been validated to play a vital role in EOC tumorigenesis. Colon cancer-associated transcript 2 (CCAT2) has been verified as an oncogenic lncRNA in multiple tumors; however, the role of CCAT2 in EOC genesis is still unclear. The purpose of the present study was to probe the function of CCAT2 on EOC. Preliminary experiments found that CCAT2 expression was significantly upregulated in EOC tissues and cell lines compared to noncancerous tissue and cells. CCAT2 knockdown induced by interfering oligonucleotides could inhibit proliferation and promote apoptosis and induce cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that miR-424 targeted CCAT2, which was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Moreover, the miR-424 inhibitor rescued the tumorigenesis inhibition induced by CCAT2 knockdown. In summary, our findings illustrate that CCAT2 acts as competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) or sponge via negatively targeting miR-424, providing a novel diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for EOC.