LncRNA SNHG8 Promotes Liver Cancer Proliferation and Metastasis by Sponging miR-542-3p and miR-4701-5p

Abstract Growing evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are associated with carcinogenesis and could function as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) to regulate microRNAs (miRNAs). LncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 8 (LncRNA SNHG8) is up-regulated in various cancers and positively associated with poor prognosis of these cancers. However, the molecular mechanisms by which lncRNA SNHG8 contributes to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remains unclear. In the present study, we reported that lncRNA SNHG8 was abnormally up-regulated in liver cancer tissues and HCC cell lines. Moreover, knockdown of lncRNA SNHG8 significantly attenuated the proliferation, migration, invasion process of HCC cell line HepG2 in vitro. Mechanistically, we first reported that suppression of lncRNA SNHG8 evidently enhanced miR-542-3p and miR-4701-5p expression and decreased TET3 expression at posttranscriptional level. Furthermore, lncRNA SNHG8 upregulated TET3 expression by sponging miR-542-3p and miR-4701-5p by competing binding. Taken together, our results confirmed the oncogene role of lncRNA SNHG8 and discovered the underlying mechanism that lncRNA SNHG8 upregulated TET3 through the sponging or decaying of miR-542-3p and miR-4701-5p in human hepatocellular carcinoma, suggesting that lncRNA SNHG8 may serve as a potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.