Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in carcinogenesis and progression. However, the roles and functional mechanisms of lncRNAs in cervical cancer remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that cervical carcinoma high-expressed lncRNA 1 (lncRNA-CCHE1) was significantly upregulated in cervical cancer tissues. The higher expression of CCHE1 was significantly correlated with large tumor size, advanced Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, uterine corpus invasion, and poor survival. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments demonstrated that CCHE1 overexpression promotes the proliferation of cervical cancer cell. By contrast, the depletion of CCHE1 inhibits the proliferation of cervical cancer cells. RNA pull-down assays confirmed that CCHE1 physically associates with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) messenger RNA, consequently enhances the expression of PCNA. The expression of CCHE1 and PCNA is significantly correlated in cervical cancer tissues. The depletion of PCNA abolishes the effects of CCHE1 on the proliferation of cervical cancer cells. Taken together, these findings indicate that CCHE1 plays a pivotal role in cervical cancer cell proliferation via increasing PCNA expression and serves as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in human cervical cancer.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; Long noncoding RNA; PCNA; Proliferation.