TFAP2A and gastric cancer: To further investigate the interaction between TFAP2A-AS1 and miR-3657, luciferase reporter assays were conducted, showing that the transfection of miR-3657 mimics overtly impaired the luciferase activity of pmirGLO + TFAP2A-AS1 while barely influencing that of pmirGLO or pmirGLO + TFAP2A-AS1-MUT in GC cells (Fig. 2G).