Open Access

ARTICLE

Long Noncoding RNA PVT1 Promotes Melanoma Progression via Endogenous Sponging miR-26b

Bao-Juan Wang^*, Hong-Wei Ding^†, Guo-An Ma^†

* Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Second Hospital of Hengshui City, Hengshui City, Hebei Province, P.R. China
† Department of Dermatology, Harrison International Heping Hospital, Hengshui City, Hengshui City, Hebei Province, P.R. China

Oncology Research 2018, 26(5), 675-681. https://doi.org/10.3727/096504017X14920318811730

Abstract

Melanoma is an extremely aggressive malignant skin tumor with a high mortality. Various long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be associated with the oncogenesis of melanoma. The purposes of this study were to investigate the potential role of lncRNA PVT1 in melanoma progression and to explore its possible mechanisms. A total of 35 patients who were diagnosed with malignant melanoma were enrolled in this study. Expression of PVT1 was significantly upregulated in melanoma tissue and was associated with a poor prognosis. Loss-of-function experiments showed that PVT1 knockdown markedly suppressed the proliferation activity, induced cell cycle arrest at the G₀/G₁ phase, and enhanced the apoptosis of melanoma cell lines. Bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay revealed that PVT1 directly bound to miR-26b, which had been verified to be a tumor suppressor in melanoma. Moreover, further functional rescue experiments revealed that PVT1 knockdown could observably reverse the tumor-promoting role of the miR-26b inhibitor. Overall, our study demonstrates the oncogenic role of PVT1 as a miR-26b sponge, possibly providing a novel therapeutic target for melanoma.

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