Long noncoding RNA LINC00961 inhibits cell invasion and metastasis in human non-small cell lung cancer.

Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) expression has been found to be misregulated in multiple human cancers, and a growing number of studies have revealed that lncRNAs can function as important oncogenes or tumor suppressors. In this study, we identified a lncRNA-LINC00961, which was significantly down-regulated in human non-small cell lung cancer tissues. Decreased LINC00961 was associated with NSCLC patients advanced clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, and shorter survival time. Further experiments demonstrated that LSD1 could directly bind to LINC00961 promoter regions and epigenetically repress its transcription in NSCLC cells. Moreover, MTT assays showed that LINC00961 had no influence on NSCLC cell proliferation. Ectopic overexpression of LINC00961 inhibits NSCLC cell migration, invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo. Finally, qRT-PCR and western blot assays revealed that LINC00961 could act as a tumor suppressor partially via affecting β-catenin expression. Collectively, decreased LINC00961 might play a key role in NSCLC progression, and may serve as a novel prognostic marker in human NSCLC.