lncRNA HOXB‐AS3 exacerbates proliferation, migration, and invasion of lung cancer via activating the PI3K‐AKT pathway

Abstract Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer‐related death all over the world. In spite of the great advances made in surgery and chemotherapy, the prognosis of lung cancer patients is poor. A substantial fraction of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate various cancers. A recent study has reported that lncRNA HOXB‐AS3 plays a critical role in cancers. However, its biological function remains unclear in lung cancer progression. In the current research, we found HOXB‐AS3 was obviously elevated in NSCLC tissues and cells. Functional assays showed that inhibition of HOXB‐AS3 was able to repress A549 and H1975 cell proliferation, cell colony formation ability and meanwhile, triggered cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the lung cancer cell cycle was mostly blocked in the G1 phase whereas the cell ratio in the S phase was reduced. Also, A549 and H1975 cell migration and invasion capacity were significantly repressed by the loss of HOXB‐AS3. The PI3K/AKT pathway has been implicated in the carcinogenesis of multiple cancers. Here, we displayed that inhibition of HOXB‐AS3 suppressed lung cancer cell progression via inactivating the PI3K/AKT pathway. Subsequently, in vivo experiments were utilized in our study and it was demonstrated that HOXB‐AS3 contributed to lung cancer tumor growth via modulating the PI3K/AKT pathway. Overall, we implied that HOXB‐AS3 might provide a new perspective for lung cancer treatment via targeting PI3K/AKT.