Long noncoding RNA FOXD2‐AS1 promotes glioma cell cycle progression and proliferation through the FOXD2‐AS1/miR‐31/CDK1 pathway

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are vital mediators involved in cancer progression. Previous studies confirmed that FOXD2 adjacent opposite strand RNA 1 (FOXD2‐AS1) is upregulated in tumor diseases. The potential influence of FOXD2‐AS1 in glioma progression, however, remains unknown. In this paper, FOXD2‐AS1 was found to be upregulated in glioma tissues. Its level was linked with glioma stage. Moreover, glioma patients expressing high level of FOXD2‐AS1 suffered worse prognosis. Biological functions of FOXD2‐AS1 in glioma cells were analyzed through integrative bioinformatics and TCGA RNA sequencing data analysis. Pathway enrichment analysis uncovered that FOXD2‐AS1 was mainly linked with cell cycle regulation in both low‐grade glioma and glioblastoma. Further experiments demonstrated that silence of FOXD2‐AS1 inhibited proliferation, arrested cell cycle and downregulated cyclin‐dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) in human glioma cells. Dual‐luciferase reporter assay confirmed that FOXD2‐AS1 upregulated CDK1 by sponging miR‐31. Rescue assays were performed and confirmed the regulatory loop FOXD2‐AS1/miR‐31/CDK1 in glioma. Collectively, our results indicated that the FOXD2‐AS1/miR‐31/CDK1 axis influenced glioma progression, providing a potential new target for glioma patients. Glioma patients with a high level of FOXD2‐AS1 tended to be associated with a poor prognosis.The FOXD2‐AS1/miR‐31/CDK1 axis plays key roles in glioma progression and potential direction of targeted therapies for glioma patients.