LINC-PINT suppresses breast cancer cell proliferation and migration via MEIS2/PPP3CC/NF-kB pathway by sponging miR-576-5p

Background: Breast cancer (BCa) is the most frequent malignant tumor in women. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been acknowledged to exert critical regulating functions in various cancers. Long intergenic non-protein coding RNA, p53 induced transcript (LINC-PINT) has been reported to be a chemosensitizer and a tumor suppressor in BCa. However, its downstream molecular mechanism contributing to its tumor-suppressing role remains to be explored in BCa. Methods: LINC-PINT expression in BCa tissues and cells was measured using quantitative real -time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The proliferation of transfected BCa cells was examined by counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and EdU assay. The migrating ability of indicate BCa cells was assessed by wound healing assays. Bioinformatics analysis and mechanism experiments such as RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), RNA pull down assay, and luciferase reporter assay, were applied to demonstrate the downstream targets of LINC-PINT. Results: LINC-PINT was downregulated in BCa tissues and cell lines. Overexpression of LINC-PINT suppressed BCa cell proliferation and migration. LINC-PINT could interact with miR-576-5p to upregulate Meis homeobox 2 (MEIS2) that positively regulated protein phosphatase 3 catalytic subunit gamma (PPP3CC) by inactivating the nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB) pathway. Conclusions: These findings elucidated the anti -tumor role of LINC-PINT in BCa via the miR-576-5p/MEIS2/PPP3CC/NFkB axis, which suggested that LINC-PINT might serve as a potential therapeutic target for BCa.