Objective To explore whether long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) GATA3-antisense RNA 1 (lncRNA GATA3-AS1)regulates the proliferation, migration, and invasion of colorectal cancer SW620 cells by targeting microRNA-574-3p(miR-574-3p).

Methods Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to determine the expressions of lncRNA GATA3-AS1 and miR-574-3p in colorectal cancer tissues of 43 cases and para-cancerous tissue. The SW620 cells were divided into si-NC group, si-GATA3-AS1 group, miR-NC group, miR-574-3p group, si-GATA3-AS1+anti-miR-NC group, si-GATA3-AS1+anti-miR-574-3p group according to different transfection. The cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method was used to detect cell proliferation activity, the clone formation experiment to measure the number of cell clones, the scratch test to examine the scratch healing rate, the Transwell experiment to analyze cell invasion, and the Western blot to determine the expression of migration and invasion related proteins E-cadherin and N-cadherin. The dual luciferase reporter experiment was used to detect the targeting relationship between lncRNA GATA3-AS1 and miR-574-3p.

Results The expression of lncRNA GATA3-AS1 in colorectal cancer tissues was higher, and the expression of miR-574-3p decreased compared with that in the adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). SW620 cells in the si-GATA3-AS1 group had lower proliferation activity, the number of clone formation, scratch healing rate, the number of invasive cell, and N-cadherin protein expression than the si-NC group, but the expression of E-cadherin protein was higher than that of si-NC group (P < 0.05). SW620 cell proliferation activity, the number of clone formation, scratch healing rate, the number of invasive cells, and N-cadherin protein expression in the miR-574-3p group were lower than those in the miR-NC group, and the E-cadherin protein expression level was higher than that of the miR-NC group (P < 0.05). LncRNA GATA3-AS1 targeted and regulated the expression of miR-574-3p. The proliferation activity, the number of clone cells, scratch healing rate, number of invasive cells and N-cadherin protein expression of SW620 cells in the si-GATA3-AS1+anti-miR-574-3p group were all higher than those in si-GATA3-AS1+anti-miR-NC group, while the expression level of E-cadherin protein was lower than that of the si-GATA3-AS1+anti-miR-NC group (P < 0.05).

Conclusion LncRNA GATA3-AS1 is up-regulated in colorectal cancer, and can promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of colorectal cancer cells SW620 by targeting miR-574-3p regulation.