Increasing evidence highlights the critical regulatory role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in carcinogenesis. Bladder cancer has become the most prevalent urologic malignancy, which is commonly diagnosed among adults. In this study, we showed that the lncRNA cancer susceptibility candidate 8 (CASC8) is significantly downregulated in bladder cancers and associated with the advanced stage of bladder cancer patients. Overexpression of CASC8 remarkably suppressed the bladder cancer cell proliferation. Mechanistically, we illustrated that CASC8 reduced the glycolysis of bladder cancer cells via interacting with the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1). The binding of CASC8 with FGFR1 inhibits FGFR1-mediated lactate dehydrogenase A phosphorylation, which attenuates the conversion of pyruvate into lactate. Collectively, our findings uncovered the pivotal role of CASC8 in bladder tumorigenesis and suggested that CASC8 may function as a candidate biomarker for the diagnosis of bladder cancer.
Keywords: CASC8; FGFR1; LDHA; bladder cancer; glycolysis.