Invasion and metastasis of melanoma are a series of complicated biological events regulated by multiple factors. The coregulation of many molecules involved in the development and progression of melanoma contributes to invasion and migration. mGluR1 is a metabotropic glutamate receptor that is overexpressed in melanocytes and is sufficient to induce melanoma. In our study, we found that mGluR1 was obviously increased in melanoma. Furthermore, we found that miR-129-5p could directly target and regulate mGluR1 mRNA, which was significantly reduced in A375 cells. Overexpression of miR-129-5p inhibited cell migration, invasion and clonal formation. lncRNA-AC130710 directly targeted and suppressed miR-129-5p in A375 cells. Downregulation of lncRNA-AC130710 suppressed the levels of mGluR1 mRNA by promoting miR-129-5p expression and further inhibiting migration, invasion and colony formation in A375 cells, which was associated with the activation of the PKCα-MAPK signaling pathway. Taken together, our study showed that the lncRNA-AC130710/miR-129-5p/mGluR1 axis plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of melanoma.
