Long Non-Coding Rna Mlk7-As1 Promotes Proliferation In Human Colorectal Cancer Via Downregulation Of P21 Expression

Current studies have highlighted long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as critical regulators in various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). By utilizing publicly available data from The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset, MLK7 antisense RNA 1 (MLK7-AS1) was identified as a novel lncRNA that correlated with CRC progression. The results of reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) revealed a significant upregulation of MLK7-AS1 in both CRC tissue samples and cell lines. In addition, a positive correlation was observed between increased MLK7-AS1 expression and several clinicopathological factors in patients with CRC. Importantly, MLK7-AS1 knockdown suppressed CRC cell proliferation and promoted G1/G0 phase arrest and apoptosis in vitro, whereas MLK7-AS1 overexpression exhibited opposite effects. Consistently, decreased MLK7-AS1 expression inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, RT-qPCR and western blot assays revealed that p21 may be a potential downstream target of MLK7-AS1. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to report that MLK7-AS1 has potential as a biomarker and may promote proliferation in CRC partially through downregulating p21 expression.