Long intergenic non-coding RNA 00152 promotes renal cell carcinoma progression by epigenetically suppressing P16 and negatively regulates miR-205

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to play important roles in the tumorigenesis and development of several human cancers. Long intergenic non-coding RNA 152 (LINC00152) is significantly up-regulated in some solid tumors. However, the role of LINC00152 in the pathogenesis and development of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains largely unclear. In the study, we showed that LINC00152 expression was up-regulated in RCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues and revealed that LINC00152 expression was positively correlated with lymph node metastasis, higher TNM stage, and poor over survival (OS) time in RCC patients. Furthermore, knockdown of LINC00152 inhibited RCC cell proliferation and S phase cell proportion in vitro. Mechanistically, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) verified that LINC00152 bound to Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), LSD1 and histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27me3) and epigenetically suppressing P16 expression. In addition, LINC00152 expression was negatively correlated with miR-205 in RCC and luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that miR-205 was a target of LINC00152. These findings suggested that LINC00152 may contribute to RCC progression by epigenetically repressing P16 expression and interacted with miR-205. Thus, LINC00152 acted as a novel prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for RCC.