Increasing evidence indicates that long noncoding RNAs play important roles in development and progression of various
cancers. Zinc finger antisense 1 is a novel
long noncoding RNA whose clinical significance, biological function, and underlying mechanism are still undetermined in
glioma. In this study, we reported that zinc finger antisense 1 expression was markedly upregulated in
glioma and tightly correlated with clinical stage. Moreover, patients with high zinc finger antisense 1 expression had shorter survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis provided a clue that, probably, zinc finger antisense 1 level could serve as an independent prognostic factor for
glioma. Functionally, zinc finger antisense 1 acted as an oncogene in
glioma because its knockdown could promote apoptosis and significantly inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, zinc finger antisense 1 silencing could result in cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase and correspondingly decrease the percentage of S phase cells in both U87 and U251 cell lines. Moreover, it was found that silenced zinc finger antisense 1 could impair migration and invasion by inhibiting the epithelial-mesenchymal transition through reducing the expression of MMP2, MMP9,
N-cadherin,
Integrin β1, ZEB1, Twist, and Snail as well as increasing
E-cadherin level in
glioma. Taken together, our data identified that zinc finger antisense 1 might act as a valuable prognostic
biomarker and potential therapeutic target for
glioma.