Long non-coding RNA HEIH modulates CDK8 expression by inhibiting miR-193a-5p to accelerate nasopharyngeal carcinoma...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the commonest malignant tumor. In this article, we aimed to examine the molecular role of lncRNA HEIH in the progression of NPC.

We assessed the expression of HEIH, miR-193a-5p and CDK8 in NPC tissues and cells by real-time PCR. The cell proliferation, invasion and migration of SUNE-1 cells were examined by CCK-8 and transwell assay. Western blot assay was adopted to measure the protein expression level of CDK8. Dual-Luciferase reporter assay was adopted to evaluate the correlation between HEIH, miR-193a-5p and CDK8.

We discovered that HEIH was high expressed and miR-193a-5p was reduced in both NPC tissues and cells. The upregulation of HEIH facilitated cell proliferation, migration and invasion of SUNE-1 cells. In addition, overexpression of miR-193a-5p restrained cell progression of SUNE-1 cells. Moreover, HEIH was proved to be a molecular sponge of miR-193a-5p in NPC. Besides that, CDK8 was found to be a direct target gene of miR-193a-5p in NPC. Furthermore, CDK8 knockdown suppressed cell progression of SUNE-1 cells.

Our data demonstrated that HEIH overexpression promoted cell progression by sponging miR-193a-5p and upregulating CDK8.