Long non-coding RNA HNF1A-AS1 promotes proliferation and suppresses apoptosis of bladder cancer cells through upregulating Bcl-2

Emerging evidences have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are pivotal regulators of tumor development and progression.HNF1A-AS1 (HNF1A antisense RNA 1, C12 or f27) is a novel long non-coding RNA that acts as a potential biomarker and is involved in development and progression of several cancers.Nevertheless, we know nothing about the clinical significance and molecular mechanism of HNF1A-AS1 in bladder cancer.In this study, we found that HNF1A-AS1 is significantly up-regulated in bladder cancer.Further experiments had demonstrated that silencing HNF1A-AS1 in bladder cancer cells could inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis.Mechanistically, we found down-regulated of HNF1A-AS1 increased the expression of miR-30b-5p and subsequently inhibited the expression of Bcl-2, in a ceRNA-dependent way.Moreover, knockdown of miR-30b-5p reversed cell proliferation inhibition and cell apoptosis induced by silencing HNF1A-AS1.In conclusions, we demonstrated that HNF1A-AS1 plays an important regulatory role in bladder cancer and shed new light on lncRNA-directed diagnostic and therapeutics in bladder cancer.