lncRNA SNHG11 promotes lung cancer cell proliferation and migration via activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway

Abstract Lung cancer ranks topmost among the most frequently diagnosed cancers. Despite increasing research, there are still unresolved mysteries in the molecular mechanism of lung cancer. Long noncoding RNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 11 (SNHG11) was found to be upregulated in lung cancer and facilitated lung cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition progression while suppressed cell apoptosis. Moreover, the high expression of SNHG11 was correlated with poor prognosis of lung cancer patients, TNM stage, and tumor size. Further assays demonstrated that SNHG11 functioned in lung cancer cells via Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway. Subsequently, Wnt/β‐catenin pathway was found to be activated through SNHG11/miR‐4436a/CTNNB1 ceRNA axis. As inhibiting miR‐4436 could only partly rescue the suppression of cell function induced by silencing SNHG11, it was suspected that β‐catenin might enter cell nucleus through other pathways. Mechanism investigation proved that SNHG11 would directly bind with β‐catenin to activate classic Wnt pathway. Subsequently, in vivo tumorigenesis was also demonstrated to be enhanced by SNHG11. Hence, SNHG11 was found to promote lung cancer progression by activating Wnt/β‐catenin pathway in two different patterns, implying that SNHG11 might contribute to lung cancer treatment by acting as a therapeutic target.