The effects of LINC00324 on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion via autophagy in melanoma

Cutaneous melanoma is a highly aggressive malignant neoplasm. Increasing evidence has suggested that lncRNAs exerts a regulatory effect in melanoma proliferation and metastasis. However, the role of LINC00324 in melanama is still a mystery. We investigated the role of LINC00324 in the extant literature and found that it is highly expressed and has an oncogenic function in most tumors. In our study, LINC00324 was found to be expressed at low levels in melanoma tissues and cell lines. Then, cell proliferation, migration, invasion and autophagy-ralated markers were determined. Futhermore, the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway was assayed by Western blot assay. In in vitro study, we found that LINC00324 inhibited autophagy through AKT/mTOR signaling. Intriguingly, in in vivo study , we found that increased LINC00324 expression is associated with decreased autophagy and inhibits melanoma growth and lung metastasis via the AMPK/mTOR pathway. In conclusion, our findings suggest that melanoma is an autophagy-dependent tumor and that LINC00324 may be an effective clinical biomarker for melanoma regression.