Methods
Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between miR-143-3p and PSMG3-AS1. RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression levels of miR-143-3p and PSMG3-AS1 and the correlation between them in HCC. The survival curve was used to analyze the effect of PSMG3-AS1 on the prognosis of liver cancer. RT-qPCR was used to detect the effect of different concentration gradients of miR-143-3p on PSMG3-AS1. CCK8 and clone formation experiments were used to examine the role of miR-143-3p and PSMG3-AS1 in regulating the proliferation of SNU-182 and SNU-398 cells.
Results
Our preliminary bioinformatics analysis showed that miR-143-3p can target PSMG3-AS1. We, therefore, analyzed the interaction between PSMG3-AS1 and miR-143-3p in HCC. We found that PSMG3-AS1 was upregulated, while miR-143-3p was downregulated in HCC. The expression levels of PSMG3‑AS1 and miR-143-3p were closely and inversely correlated with each other. High expression levels of PSMG3‑AS1 predicted poor survival. In HCC cells, overexpression of PSMG3-AS1 led to increased proliferation rates. Overexpression of miR-143-3p played an opposite role and reversed the effect of overexpression of PSMG3‑AS1. Discussions: miR-143-3p may target PSMG3‑AS1 to inhibit the proliferation of HCC cells.