c-Myc-activated long non-coding RNA H19 downregulates miR-107 and promotes cell cycle progression of non-small cell lung cancer

To verify c-Myc can regulate the expression of lncRNA H19 directly in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and clarify the molecular mechanism on how lncRNA H19 promote the cell cycle progression of NSCLC. The mRNA levels of lncRNA H19 in NSCLC tissues and cells, the adjacent tissues and normal cells were determined by RT-PCR. The expression change of lncRNA H19 in NSCLC cells after transfection with pcDNA3.1-c-Myc or c-Myc-siRNA was determined by RT-PCR, respectively. Targeted role of c-Myc on the promoter of H19 was studied by luciferase reporter assay. Chromosome immune coprecipitation (ChIP) was used to confirm the relationship between c-Myc and H19. MiRNAs that have base-pairing with H19 was predicted by online software. The relationship between H19 and miR-107 was determined by disturbing and overexpressing the expression of H19. The influence of the changes of H19 and miR-107 on cell cycle progression was determined by flow cytometry. The mRNA levels of lncRNA H19 in NSCLC tissues and cells were significantly higher than the adjacent tissues and normal cells, respectively. The expression of H19 increased or decreased accordingly with the overexpression and knockdown of c-Myc. The activity of the promoter of H19 was strengthened by c-Myc. While the expression of miR-107 increased or decreased with the overexpression and knockdown of H19, respectively. The number of cells in G2/M stage decreased significantly with the knockdown of H19 and miR-107 compared with the control group. Our study demonstrates that lncRNA H19, which is induced by c-Myc, is up-regulated in NSCLC. H19 influences the mitotic progression of NSCLC cell lines.