LncRNA SNHG15 Contributes to Immuno-Escape of Gastric Cancer Through Targeting miR141/PD-L1

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to participate in many biological processes and severs as important regulators during the progression of gastric cancer.

Here, we introduced human lncRNA SNHG15 which was highly expressed in gastric cancer and cells. Interestingly, the expression of SNHG15 was correlated with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1), which promotes the resistance of gastric cancer cells to immune responses. Meanwhile, SNHG15 downregulation suppressed the expression of PD-L1 and resistance of immune responses.

Further, our results suggested that SNHG15 acted as a competing endogenous RNA (CeRNA) to sponge miR-141, which was downregulated in gastric cancers and negatively correlated to PD-L1.

Our results suggested that SNHG15 improved the expression of PD-L1 by inhibiting miR-141, which in turn promoted the resistance of stomach cancer cells to the immune responses.