In our study, we elucidated a new putative mechanism by which STAT6 transcriptionally activated SOX21-AS1 regulated its nearby gene SOX21 via acting as a ceRNA to target miR-576-5p and interacting with USP10 in a manner important for PC cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and EMT (Fig. 7). Here, USP10 is linked to pachyonychia congenita.