LncRNA FOXC2-AS1 enhances FOXC2 mRNA stability to promote colorectal cancer progression via activation of Ca²⁺-FAK signal pathway.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been confirmed, which are involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC). FOXC2 antisense RNA 1 (FOXC2-AS1) was reported, facilitating the proliferation and progression in several cancers. However, the role of FOXC2-AS1 in CRC cell migration and metastasis is not unclear. In this study, we observed that lncRNA FOXC2-AS1 was upregulated in CRC tissues, and its high expression indicated the poor survival in CRC patients. Meanwhile, FOXC2-AS1 was higher in CRC tissues with metastasis than that of nonmetastatic tumor tissues. We found that FOXC2-AS1 was predominately expressed in the nucleus of tissues and cells. FOXC2-AS1 knockdown suppressed CRC cell growth, invasion, and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, FOXC2-AS1 could positively regulate the neighboring gene FOXC2 and stabilized FOXC2 mRNA by forming a RNA duplex. Meanwhile, ectopic expression of FOXC2 could obviously alleviate the suppressed effects caused by silencing FOXC2-AS1. For the mechanism, FOXC2-AS1 knockdown could reduce intracellular Ca²⁺ levels, inhibited FA formation and FAK signaling, and these suppressed effects were mitigated by increasing FOXC2 expression. These results demonstrated that FOXC2-AS1 enhances FOXC2 mRNA stability to promote CRC proliferation, migration, and invasion by activation of Ca²⁺-FAK signaling, which implicates that FOXC2-AS1 may represent a latent effective therapeutic target for CRC progression.

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