Knockdown of long non-coding RNA TP73-AS1 inhibits osteosarcoma cell proliferation and invasion through sponging miR-142.

Long non-coding RNA P73 antisense RNA 1 T (lncRNA TP73-AS1) has been shown to involve in the progression of numerous tumors. Nevertheless, the expression as well as the functional mechanisms of TP73-AS1 in osteosarcoma (OS) are still largely unknown. This study aimed to explore the roles and underlying mechanism of TP73-AS1 in OS progression. In thye present study, TP73-AS1 expression was significantly increased in OS tissues and cell lines. High TP73-AS1 expression was associated with poor overall survival of OS patients. TP73-AS1 knockdown suppressed OS cells proliferation and invasion in vitro as well as tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, we identified that miR-142 could act as a direct target for TP73-AS1 and miR-142 inhibition reversed the suppression of OS cells proliferation and invasion induced by TP73-AS1 knockdown. In addition, we showed that TP73-AS1 could function as a sponge of miR-142 to positively regulate Rac1 in OS cells. Thus, our data suggested that TP73-AS1 served as an oncogenic lncRNA in OS progression, and could be regarded as an efficient therapeutic target in the treatment of OS.