LncRNA LINK-A regulates ROCK1 expression in early-stage pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Long intergenic non-coding RNA for kinase activation (LINK-A) has been characterized as an oncogenic long non-coding (lnc)RNA in triple-negative breast cancer and ovarian carcinoma, but its involvement in other malignancies remains elusive. In the present study, it was determined that the plasma levels of LINK-A lncRNA and Rho-associated protein kinase 1 (ROCK1) were significantly increased in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma compared with those in healthy controls. The plasma levels of LINK-A lncRNA were positively correlated with the plasma levels of ROCK1 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients, but not in healthy controls. Silencing of LINK-A led to inhibition of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Simultaneous overexpression of ROCK1 attenuated the inhibitory effect of LINK-A silencing on cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Overexpression of LINK-A lncRNA led to upregulation of ROCK1 expression, while overexpression of ROCK1 had no significant effect on LINK-A lncRNA expression. It may therefore be concluded that LINK-A lncRNA may have a role in pancreatic adenocarcinoma, at least in part, by promoting ROCK1 expression.