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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Author Spotlight: A Computational Pipeline for Analyzing Chimeric Noncoding RNA-Target RNA Interactions in High-Throughput Sequencing Data
Published on: December 1, 2023
Long noncoding RNA DSCAM-AS1 is associated with poor clinical prognosis and contributes to melanoma development by
1Department of Dermatology, Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital East Affiliated to Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, China. wahaa1191@yeah.net.
Objective:
Accumulating evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are playing critical roles in tumorigenesis. The present study aimed to investigate the expression pattern and effects of lncRNA DSCAM-AS1 (DSCAM-AS1) that was a newly discovered lncRNA in melanoma.
Patients And Methods:
Real-time quantitative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) was performed to determine the expression of DSCAM-AS1 in melanoma tissues and cell lines. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were utilized to assess the association between the DSCAM-AS1 and overall survival of patients in melanoma patients. The CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry assays, transwell and wound scratch assays were performed to determine the biological function of DSCAM-AS1 in tumor cells behaviors. Then, DSCAM-AS1-specific miRNA was further confirmed using the dual-luciferase reporter assay and Western blotting.
Results:
In this research, we showed that the expression of DSCAM-AS1 was significantly upregulated in melanoma samples and cell lines. Clinical investigation indicated that higher expression of DSCAM-AS1 was associated with ulceration and advanced stage and led to significantly poorer survival time. High DSCAM-AS1 expression in melanoma was confirmed to be an independent predictor of poor survival of patients using univariate and multivariate analysis. Functional investigations revealed that knockdown of DSCAM-AS1 inhibited the ability of cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, invasion, whereas promoted cell apoptosis. Furthermore, mechanistic investigations indicated that DSCAM-AS1 could interact with miR-136 and negatively influence the expression of miR-136.
Conclusions:
Our findings showed that DSCAM-AS1 is a novel tumor-related molecule involved in melanoma progression as well as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.
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