Long non-coding RNA CRNDE enhances cervical cancer progression by suppressing PUMA expression.

Cervical cancer is the second most common gynecological malignancy, and it remains a leading cause of tumor-related death among female in the world. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been indicated to play essential roles in tumorigenesis, and the lncRNA colorectal neoplasia differentially expressed (CRNDE) is increased in several tumors. Nevertheless, little is known about the effects of lncRNA CRNDE on human cervical cancer. The aim of the study was to explore the clinical significance of lncRNA CRNDE expression in human cervical cancer. Our results indicated that CRNDE expression was increased in cervical cancer tissues and several cervical cancer cell lines. Through loss-of-function and gain-of-function approaches, we found that CRNDE knockdown markedly reduced cervical cancer cell proliferation, while CRNDE overexpression significantly promoted cervical cancer cell growth. Consistently, CRNDE decreasing obviously inhibited tumorigenicity of cervical cancer cells in vivo, whereas CRNDE increasing markedly promoted cervical cancer progression. Mechanistically, we verified that CRNDE bond to p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA), and PUMA was required for CRNDE to enhance cervical cancer cell growth. Our study demonstrated that CRNDE, combined with PUMA, could be utilized as factor for the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cervical cancer, and might be potential target for developing effective therapeutic strategy to prevent cervical cancer progression.