In this review, the multiple pathological functions of ZFAS1 in diverse malignancies are systematically reviewed to elucidate the molecular basis of its biological roles and to provide new directions for future research.
Functional studies revealed that ZFAS1 can promote cancer cell migration by elevating intracellular reactive oxygen species production by inhibiting nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase expression, indicating that translated ZFAS1 may be an essential oncogene in the progression of HCC.
Altogether these data showed SNHG6, PVT1 and ZFAS1, are promising candidates for experimental research on colorectal adenocarcinoma to discover novel biomarker for this prevalent cancer.
Furthermore, promotion of cancer malignant progression and activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling induced by ZFAS1 was counteracted by increasing miR-200b expression.
Further excavation of this transcript indicated that ZFAS1 could function as oncogenic factor via many approaches to contribute to the advance of cancers, including induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, sponging microRNAs, destabilization p53 gene and many others.
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) ZFAS1 (zinc finger antisense 1) has been suggested to have an oncogenic role in the tumorigenesis of human malignant tumors.
Subgroup analysis revealed that high ZFAS1 expression was significantly related to high incidence of LNM in subgroups of sample size more than 88 (OR: 3.16, 95% CI: 2.06-4.86, <i>P</i> < 0.001), non-digestive system malignancies (OR: 4.05, 95% CI: 2.49-6.60, <i>P</i> < 0.001), and studies reported in 2017 (OR: 4.86, 95% CI: 2.67-8.84, <i>P</i> < 0.001) without significant heterogeneity.
In conclusion, lncRNA ZFAS1 might serve as a prognostic biomarker for cancer patients and increased ZFAS1 expression may be closely related to advanced characteristics of cancer.