Upregulation and hypomethylation of lncRNA AFAP1‑AS1 predicts a poor prognosis and promotes the migration and invasion of cervical cancer.

Although lncRNA AFAP1 antisense RNA1 (AFAP1‑AS1) is considered an oncogenic lncRNA, little is known about the role of AFAP1‑AS1 in cervical cancer. In the present study, we found that AFAP1‑AS1 was elevated and hypomethylated in cervical cancer and was associated with a poor prognosis of patients with cervical cancer by analyzing the Cancer RNA‑Seq Nexus (CRN), MethCH and UCSC XENA databases. Subsequently, we knocked AFAP1‑AS1 expression down using siRNAs in cervical cancer cells. Wound healing experiments and matrigel invasion experiments revealed that the downregulation of AFAP1‑AS1 suppressed the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cells. Furthermore, western blot analysis demonstrated that the antitumor effects induced by the silencing of AFAP1‑AS1 were mainly mediated through the regulation of the Rho/Rac signaling pathway and epithelial‑mesenchymal transition (EMT)‑related genes. Taken together, the findings of the present study indicate that the expression level of AFAP1‑AS1 may be involved in the development of cervical cancer. Thus, AFAP1‑AS1 may be a novel prognostic biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for patients with cervical cancer.