Fig. 5

SNHG4 decoys miR-204-5p to upregulate its target gene RUNX2 in RCC cells. a A Venn diagram showed the number of genes identified as potential targets of miR-204-5p. b The miR-204-5p putative binding sequences and corresponding mutant sites of RUNX2 3′UTR. c Dual-luciferase reporter assay analysis of the luciferase activity in 769-P and ACHN cell lines after co-transfection with miR-204-5p mimic and construct containing wt and mut 3′-UTR of RUNX2. d, e qRT-PCR and western blot assay analysis of the expression levels of RUNX2 mRNA and protein in 769-P and ACHN cell lines after transfection with corresponding vectors. f, g Significantly inverse correlations between expression levels of miR-204-5p and RUNX2 mRNA were observed in human RCC tissues from the Zhengzhou cohort (f) and TCGA data set (g). h, i qRT-PCR and western blot assays analyses of the expression levels of RUNX2 mRNA and protein in 769-P and ACHN cell lines after transfection with corresponding vectors. j, k A positive correlation between SNHG4 and RUNX2 expression in human RCC tissues from our cohort (j) and TCGA (k) dataset. Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation from triplicate experiments. SCR: scramble; RCC: renal cell carcinoma; wt: wild-type; mut: mutant-type; ns: not significant. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001