LncRNA FIRRE promotes the proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma by regulating the expression of PXN through interacting with MBNL3

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been a long-time public health problem impacting people's heath and challenging healthcare professions because of its poor prognosis and high lethality. More and more evidence indicated the important role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in carcinogenesis and cancer metabolism in a variety of cancer types. In this study, we found that FIRRE, a recently identified cancer-associated lncRNA located on chromosome X, is highly expressed in HCC cell lines and tissue samples, and its expression is positively correlated with poor HCC prognosis. In vitro and in vivo functional analyses showed that FIRRE could promote the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC. As for the potential mechanism, FIRRE specifically binds to the splicing factor MBNL3 to affect the expression of PXN to regulate the pathological characteristics of HCC cells. In summary, our study showed that the lncRNA FIRRE is a cancer promoting factor and may be a potential biomarker for the prognosis and drug target for the treatment of HCC. •LncRNA FIRRE is highly expressed in HCC cells and tissues, and its expression is positively correlated with poor prognosis.•FIRRE could promote the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC in vitro and in vivo functional analyses.•FIRRE specifically binds to MBNL3 to affect the expression of PXN to regulate the pathological characteristics of HCC cells.