LncRNA SNHG12 contributes proliferation, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of pancreatic cancer cells by absorbing miRNA-320b.

Pancreatic cancer is a kind of malignant carcinoma with high mortality, which is devoid of early diagnostic biomarker and effective therapeutic methods. Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported as a crucial role in regulating the development of various kinds of tumors. Here, we found lncRNA small nuclear RNA host gene 12 (SNHG12) is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines through qRT-PCR, which suggested that SNHG12 possibly accelerates the progression of pancreatic cancer. Further study revealed that SNHG12 promoted cancer cells growth and invasion via absorbing miR-320b. Flow cytometry and transwell chamber assay were utilized to verify the promoting effects on proliferation and invasion that SNHG12 acts in pancreatic cancer cells. Evidence that SNHG12 increased cell invasive ability through up-regulated EMT process was lately obtained by Western blotting assay. Consequently, we extrapolated that SNHG12/miR-320b could be invoked as a promising early diagnostic hallmark and therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer.