Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. New evidence suggested that linc02381 suppressed colorectal cancer progression by regulating PI3 K signaling pathway, but the role of linc02381 in other diseases, such as RA, remains unclear. This study aimed to reveal the mechanism of linc02381 in RA progression. In vivo and in vitro, we found that linc02381 was upregulated in RA synovial tissues or RA fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLSs, P < 0.01), which were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Cell Counting Kit-8, EDU, and Transwell assays revealed that linc02381 overexpression enhanced cell proliferation and invasion, and linc02381 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and invasion in FLSs. Moreover, the results of bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter gene assay, and pull-down assay verified that linc02381 could directly bind with miR-590-5p. MiR-590-5p was downregulated in RA-FLSs, and overexpression of linc02381 suppressed expression of miR-590-5p that post-transcriptionally suppressed the expression of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 3 (MAP2K3), and overexpression of miR-590-5p reversed the effect of linc02381 overexpression on MAP2K3 expression. MiR-590-5p inhibitor reversed the inhibition effect of linc02381 knockdown on proliferation and invasion of FLSs, which enhanced expression of MAP2K3, and activation of p38 and AP-1 in the MAPK signaling pathway. In summary, linc02381 was upregulated in RA synovial tissues and RA-FLSs, and it exacerbated RA by adsorbing miR-590-5p to activate the MAPK signaling pathway.