Vector construction and cell transduction

The silencing RNA against AUF1 (si-AUF1), AFAP1-AS1 (si-AFAP1-AS1#1, si-AFAP1-AS1#2) and HNRNPA2B1 (si-HNRNPA2B1) were synthesized and purchased from GenePharma (Shanghai, China). Negative control siRNA is purchased from Invitrogen (CAT#12935–110, Carlsbad, CA, USA). AFAP1-AS1, HNRNPA2B1cDNA or negative control cDNA was enlarged and cloned into the pcDNA3.1 expression vector, defined as p-AFAP1-AS1 and p-NC. shRNAs targeting AFAP1-AS1 (sh-AFAP1-AS1) or negative control (sh-NC) were synthesized and loaded into lentivirus for in vivo assays. Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) were used for transfection with the final concentration of 100 nM according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The sequences of small interfering RNAs are presented in Additional file 2: Table S2.