Plenty of evidence has suggested that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have played a vital part may act as prognostic biomarkers in a variety of cancers.,The aim of this study was to screen survival-related lncRNAs and to construct a lncRNA-based prognostic model in patients with cutaneous melanoma (CM).,We obtained lncRNAs expression profiles and clinicopathological data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) databases.,A lncRNA-based prognostic model was established in training set.,The established prognostic model was evaluated, and validated in the validation set.,Then, a prognostic nomogram combining the lncRNA-based risk score and clinicopathological characteristics was developed in training set, and assessed in the validation set.,The accuracy of the model was evaluated by the discrimination and calibration plots.,A total of 212 lncRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed in CM.,After univariate analysis, LASSO penalized regression analysis, and multivariate analysis, 3 lncRNAs were used to construct risk score model.,The proposed risk score model could divide patients into high-risk and low-risk groups with significantly different survival in both training set and validation set.,The ROC curve showed good performance in survival prediction in both sets.,Furthermore, the nomogram for predicting 3-, 5-, and 10-year OS was established based on lncRNA-based risk score and clinicopathologic factors.,The prognostic accuracy of the risk model was confirmed by the discrimination and calibration plots in both training set and validation set.,We established a novel three lncRNA-based risk score model and nomogram to predict overall survival of CM.,The proposed nomogram may provide information for individualized treatment in CM patients.
Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer that derived from pigment cells, accounting for the majority of the skin-cancer-related deaths.,Despite great development and evolution have been made in surgery, radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy, the prognosis of melanoma patients exhibited no significant improvement.,Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are frequently dysregulated and involved in the development of cancers.,LncRNA AFAP1-AS1 has been explored in various cancers, whereas its role and regulatory mechanism in melanoma are not well understood.,The expression of AFAP1-AS1 was detected by qRT-PCR.,CCK-8, colony formation, transwell and western blot assays were performed to investigate the biological role of AFAP1-AS1 in melanoma.,Male BALB/c nude mice were applied for in vivo experiments.,The interaction among AFAP1-AS1, miR-653-5p and RAI14 was investigated by RNA pull down, RIP and luciferase reporter assays.,AFAP1-AS1 was highly expressed in melanoma cell lines.,Suppression of AFAP1-AS1 impaired cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT in melanoma.,Moreover, AFAP1-AS1 was a ceRNA of RAI14 by competitively binding with miR-653-5p.,Besides, miR-653-5p overexpression or RAI14 inhibition could repress tumor growth.,Eventually, rescue assays indicated that the function of AFAP1-AS1 in the cellular process of melanoma was dependent on miR-653-5p and RAI14.,AFAP1-AS1 exerts its oncogenic function in melanoma by targeting miR-653-5p/RAI14 axis.