LincRNA-ROR promotes invasion, metastasis and tumor growth in pancreatic cancer through activating ZEB1 pathway

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains one of the most lethal malignant tumors; early distant metastasis commonly results in poor prognosis. Recent studies confirmed the pivotal role of the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in tumorigenesis and metastasis of malignant tumors, including PC. However, little is known about the role of LincRNA-ROR (linc-ROR) in PC. In the present study, we found that linc-ROR was upregulated in PC tissues. Overexpression of linc-ROR promoted cells proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis both in vitro and in a mouse model. Contrarily, knockdown of linc-ROR attenuated proliferation, invasion and distant metastasis. Mechanistically, we confirmed that linc-ROR up-regulates ZEB1 and then induces epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which promotes the aggressive biological behaviors of PC. Together, these results indicate that linc-ROR acts as an important regulator of ZEB1, can promote invasion and metastasis in PC, and may represent a novel therapeutic target.