LINC00622 transcriptionally promotes RRAGD to repress mTORC1-modulated autophagic cell death by associating with BTF3 in cutaneous melanoma

We report a novel long noncoding RNA, LINC00622, which modulates the mTORC1-regulated autophagy in cutaneous melanoma. Functionally, LINC00622 acts as an oncogene to promote the proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in melanoma while suppressing cell death. Mechanically, LINC00622 associates and recruits BTF3 to transcriptionally enhance RRAGD expression for activating mTORC1 and inhibiting autophagic cell death, which contributes to the development of cutaneous melanoma. Our findings not only demonstrated the oncogenic role of LINC00622 via RRAGD/mTORC1 axis to repress autophagic cell death in cutaneous melanoma, but also offer novel treatment targets for melanoma therapy. To figure out the role of long non-coding RNA LINC00622 in melanoma and the underlying mechanism, RNA transcriptome sequencing was performed to globally characterize LINC00622-regulated transcriptome changes. LINC00622 knockdown by RNA interference in A375 and SK-MEL-28 cells. cells treated with siNC served as control.