Long Noncoding RNA DSCAM-AS1 is Associated with Poor Clinical Prognosis and Contributes to Melanoma Development by Sponging MiR-136

Objective: Accumulating evidence suggests that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are playing critical roles in tumorigenesis. The present study aimed to investigate the expression pattern and effects of lncRNA DSCAM-AS1 (DSCAM-AS1) that was a newly discovered lncRNA in melanoma.

Patients And Methods: Real-time quantitative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) was performed to determine the expression of DSCAM-AS1 in melanoma tissues and cell lines. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were utilized to assess the association between the DSCAM-AS1 and overall survival of patients in melanoma patients. The CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, flow cytometry assays, transwell and wound scratch assays were performed to determine the biological function of DSCAM-AS1 in tumor cells behaviors. Then, DSCAM-AS1-specific miRNA was further confirmed using the dual-luciferase reporter assay and Western blotting.

Results: In this research, we showed that the expression of DSCAM-AS1 was significantly upregulated in melanoma samples and cell lines. Clinical investigation indicated that higher expression of DSCAM-AS1 was associated with ulceration and advanced stage and led to significantly poorer survival time. High DSCAM-AS1 expression in melanoma was confirmed to be an independent predictor of poor survival of patients using univariate and multivariate analysis. Functional investigations revealed that knockdown of DSCAM-AS1 inhibited the ability of cell proliferation, colony formation, migration, invasion, whereas promoted cell apoptosis. Furthermore, mechanistic investigations indicated that DSCAM-AS1 could interact with miR-136 and negatively influence the expression of miR-136.

Conclusions: Our findings showed that DSCAM-AS1 is a novel tumor-related molecule involved in melanoma progression as well as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.