Fig. 7: SNHG16 regulates USP21 expression by targeting miR-4500.

a Relative expression of lncRNA SNHG16 and miR-4500 in tumor and adjacent control tissues. b Linear regression correlation analyses of lncRNA SNHG16 and miR-4500 expression. c, d Relative expression of miR-4500 and SNHG16 in A549 cells transfected with si-SNHG16 or miR-4500 mimic. e Western blot analyses of USP21 and YY1 when SNHG16 was silenced or miR-4500 mimics were used. β-Actin was used as an internal control. f RNA-binding protein immunoprecipitation assays with Ago2 antibodies and fold enrichment analyses of SNHG16 and miR-4500. g, h Wild-type and mutated SNHG16 (SNHG16-wt and SNHG16-mut containing the designed mutant sequence in the predicted binding sites of miR-4500) or USP21 3′-UTR (USP21 3′-UTR-wt and USP21 3′-UTR-mut containing the designed mutant sequence in the predicted binding sites of miR-4500) luciferase reporter gene vectors were constructed. The indicated vectors were cotransfected into A549 cells with miR-4500 mimics, and the luciferase activity was then determined using dual luciferase assays. Error bars: mean ± SD. n = 3. **p < 0.01 vs. the corresponding control.