Silencing of lncRNA ZFAS1 inhibits malignancies by blocking Wnt/β-catenin signaling in gastric cancer cells.

Gastric cancer is a common malignancy with high mortality. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) zinc finger antisense (ZFAS)1 is upregulated in gastric cancer specimens compared with the para-carcinoma tissues. The silencing of ZFAS1 inhibited the growth, proliferation, cell cycle progress, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and enhanced the sensitivity to cis-platinum or paclitaxel in SGC7901 cells, as evidenced by the expression changes of proliferating cell nuclear antigen, Cyclin D1, Cyclin E, Cyclin B1, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP-14. The ZFAS1 also activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Subsequently, the ZFAS1 knockdown-induced the inhibition of migration, invasion, EMT and resistance to chemotherapeutic reagens was reversed by the overexpression of β-catenin. In summary, the silencing of ZFAS1 inhibited the growth, proliferation, cell cycle progress, migration, invasion, EMT and chemotherapeutic tolerance by blocking the Wnt/β-catenin signaling in gastric cancer cells.