SOX21-AS1 augmented cervical cancer growth by triggering FZD3 to activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) SOX21-AS1 has been reported that it plays an important role in biological processes of several cancers. However, how it functions in cervical cancer (CC) still remain unclear. This investigation seeks to explore the impact of SOX21-AS1 on CC cell proliferation, invasion and migration and its association to the FZD3 and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. SOX21-AS1 expression levels were detected using real-time quantitative PCR in 20 cases of cervical cancer together with its adjacent tissues and several cervical cancer cell lines. Transgenic technology and functional experiments were conducted to confirm the carcinogenic properties of SOX21-AS1, and western blot was utilized to analyze the regulatory network composed of SOX21-AS1, FZD3 and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in CC. Through bioinformatics analysis, we found that the expression of SOX21-AS1 in CC was the highest among 16 kinds of tumor tissues. Moreover, clinical specimens confirmed that both CC tissues and cell lines possessed elevated SOX21-AS1 expressions (P < 0.01). CC cells which stably expressed upregulated SOX21-AS1 were noted to possesses higher rates of metastasis, invasion and proliferation, lower apoptotic rates and higher expression of FZD3,β-catenin and c-myc(P < 0.01). Conversely, the use of small interfering RNA to inhibit the expression of SOX21-AS1 yielded the opposite results (P < 0.01). SOX21-AS1 functions as an oncogenic lncRNA which enhances CC cell metastasis, invasion and proliferation through FZD3 upregulation via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway activation. This lncRNA may represent an important biomarker for CC patients.