scholarly journals LncRNA CASC11 Promotes Hepatocellular Carcinoma Progression via Upregulation of UBE2T in a m6A-Dependent Manner

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Chen ◽  
Meijun Li ◽  
Liang Wang

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent malignancies and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Besides, it has been revealed that long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) cancer susceptibility candidate 11 (CASC11) is involved in cancer progression. However, the functional role and underlying mechanism of CASC11 in HCC remains largely unknown. In this context, here, it was found that CASC11 was upregulated in HCC tissues and associated with tumor grades, metastasis, and prognosis of HCC patients. Functionally, CASC11 facilitated HCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro, and enhanced tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, CASC11 associated with and stabilized Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T (UBE2T) mRNA. To be specific, it decreased UBE2T N6-methyladenosine (m6A) level via recruiting ALKBH5. Moreover, CASC11 inhibited the association between UBE2T mRNA and m6A reader protein YTHDF2. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the epigenetic mechanism of CASC11 in the regulation of UBE2T expression and possibly provide a novel therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Li ◽  
Hai-Yan Yang ◽  
Xiao-Lan Zhang ◽  
Xu Zhang ◽  
Yu-Zhou Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly malignant and has a worse prognosis, compared with other subtypes of breast cancer due to the absence of therapeutic targets. MKLP1 plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the role of MKLP1 in triple negative breast cancer and the underlying mechanism remain unknown. The study aimed to elucidate the biological function regulatory mechanism of MKLP1 in triple negative breast cancerMethods: Quantitative real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to determine the MKLP1 expression in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Then, functional experiments in vitro and in vivo were performed to investigate the effects of MKLP1 on tumor growth and metastasis in triple negative breast cancer. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was conducted to illustrate the potential regulatory mechanisms of MKLP1 in triple negative breast cancer.Results: We found that MKLP1 was significantly up-regulated and associated with poor prognosis in triple negative breast cancer. MKLP1 could promote triple negative breast cancer proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo. MKLP1 could activate Wnt/β-catenin pathway and promote EMT progression. In addition, FOXM1, upregulated by WDR5 via H3K4me3 modification, directly bound to the promoter of MKLP1 gene to promote its transcription and accelerated TNBC progression via Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Both of small inhibitor of FOXM1 and WDR5 could inhibit TNBC progression. Conclusions: Our findings elucidate WDR5/FOXM1/MKLP1/Wnt/β-catenin axis is associated with TNBC progression and may provide a novel and promising therapeutic target for TNBC treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyang Li ◽  
Shuangqing Yang ◽  
Huaqing Ma ◽  
Mengjia Ruan ◽  
Luyan Fang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Cervical cancer is a type of the most common gynecology tumor in women of the whole world. Accumulating data have shown that icariin (ICA), a natural compound, has anti-cancer activity in different cancers, including cervical cancer. The study aimed to reveal the antitumor effects and the possible underlying mechanism of ICA in U14 tumor-bearing mice and SiHa cells. Methods The antitumor effects of ICA were investigated in vivo and in vitro. The expression of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways were evaluated. Results We found that ICA significantly suppressed tumor tissue growth and SiHa cells viability in a dose-dependent manner. Also, ICA enhanced the anti-tumor humoral immunity in vivo. Moreover, ICA significantly improved the composition of the microbiota in mice models. Additionally, the results clarified that ICA significantly inhibited the migration, invasion capacity, and expression levels of TGF-β1, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-17A, IL-10 in SiHa cells. Meanwhile, ICA was revealed to promote the apoptosis of cervical cancer cells by down-regulating Ki67, survivin, Bcl-2, c-Myc, and up-regulating P16, P53, Bax levels in vivo and in vitro. For the part of mechanism exploration, we showed that ICA inhibits the inflammation, proliferation, migration, and invasion, as well as promotes apoptosis and immunity in cervical cancer through impairment of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. Conclusions Taken together, ICA could be a potential supplementary agent for cervical cancer treatment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 243 (7) ◽  
pp. 645-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Quan Yan ◽  
Juan Xie ◽  
Jing-Fu Wang ◽  
Zhao-Feng Shi ◽  
Xiang Zhang ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant diseases worldwide. The unfavorable clinical outcome and poor prognosis are due to high rates of recurrence and metastasis after treatments. Some scholars of traditional Chinese medicine suggested that endogenous wind-evil had played an important role in metastasis of malignant tumor. Therefore, the drug of dispelling wind-evil could be used to prevent cancer metastasis and improve the poor prognosis. So we wondered whether Scorpion, one of the most important wind calming drugs, has antitumor effect especially in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastasis of HCC in this research. We found that Scorpion-medicated serum could inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis, and decrease migration and invasion capacity of Hepa1-6 cells in vitro. Meanwhile, we observed that water decoction of Scorpion restrained tumor growth and metastasis in nude mouse of HCC metastasis models. Further experiments showed that Scorpion could suppress EMT, which is characterized by increased epithelial marker E-cadherin expression and decreased mesenchymal markers N-cadherin and Snail expression following Scorpion treatment both in vitro and in vivo. These results suggested that the Scorpion could inhibit Hepa1-6 cells’ invasion and metastasis in part by reversing EMT and providing a possible potential approach for preventing HCC metastasis. Impact statement The unfavorable clinical outcome and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are due to high rates of recurrence and metastasis after treatments. Here we found Scorpion, one of the most important wind calming drugs, has antitumor effect. Scorpion-medicated serum inhibited the proliferation, induced apoptosis, and decreased migration and invasion capacity of Hepa1-6 cells in vitro. Water decoction of Scorpion restrained tumor growth and metastasis in nude mouse of HCC metastasis models. Further experiments showed that Scorpion could suppress EMT of HCC both in vitro and in vivo. Our results suggested that the Scorpion could inhibit Hepa1-6 cells’ invasion and metastasis in part by reversing EMT and providing a possible potential approach for preventing HCC metastasis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qun Dai ◽  
Jingyi Deng ◽  
Jinrong Zhou ◽  
Zhuhong Wang ◽  
Xiao-feng Yuan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Accumulating evidence indicates that the long noncoding RNA taurine upregulated gene 1(TUG1) plays a critical role in cancer progression and metastasis. However, the overall biological role and clinical significance of TUG1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain largely unknown. Methods The expressions of TUG1, microRNA-216b-5p and distal-less homeobox 2 (DLX2) were detected by Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The target relationships were predicted by StarBase v.2.0 or TargetScan and confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. The cell growth, apoptosis, migration and invasion were detected by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), Flow cytometry and Transwell assays, respectively. All protein expression levels were detected by western blot. Tumor xenografts were implemented to explore the role of TUG1 in vivo. Results We found that there was a marked rise in TUG1 expression in HCC tissues and cells, and knockdown of TUG1 repressed the growth and metastasis and promoted apoptosis of HCC cells. In particular, TUG1 could act as a ceRNA, effectively becoming a sink for miR-216b-5p to fortify the expression of DLX2. Additionally, repression of TUG1 impared the progression of HCC cells by inhibiting DLX2 expression via sponging miR-216b-5p in vitro. More importantly, TUG1 knockdown inhibited HCC tumor growth in vivo through upregulating miR-216b-5p via inactivation of the DLX2. Conclusion TUG1 interacting with miR-216b-5p contributed to proliferation, metastasis, tumorigenesis and retarded apoptosis by activation of DLX2 in HCC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Y. Li ◽  
K. Yang ◽  
F. G. Liu ◽  
X. G. Sun ◽  
L. Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in tumorigenesis, but their biological functions and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Alternative splicing of five exons results in three transcript variants of cancer susceptibility 2 (CASC2): the lncRNAs CASC2a, CASC2b, and CASC2c. CASC2a/b have been found to have crucial regulatory functions in a number of malignancies, but few studies have examined the effects of CASC2c in cancers. The objective of the study was to investigate the role of CASC2c in the proliferation and apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Methods This study first investigated the expression levels of CASC2c in tumor tissues, corresponding non-tumor tissues and cells using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The function and underlying molecular mechanism of CASC2c in human HCC were investigated in QGY-7703 cell line, as well as in gastric cancer (GC) cell and colorectal cancer (CRC) cell. Results In the present work, we observed that CASC2c was significantly down-regulated in HCC tissues and cells. Moreover, its overexpression remarkably inhibited the growth, migration, and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and promoted their apoptosis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CASC2c overexpression decreased p-ERK1/2 levels in HCC, GC, and CRC cells. Interestingly, while overexpression of CASC2c decreased β-catenin expression in HCC and GC cells, it increased that in CRC cells. Conclusion The lncRNA–CASC2c has a vital role in tumorigenesis and cancer progression, and may serve as a biomarker or therapeutic target in cancer treatment via down-regulation of the ERK1/2 and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weidan Ji ◽  
Zhangxiao Peng ◽  
Bin Sun ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Qin Zhang ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a malignant cancer with rapid proliferation and high metastasis ability. To explore the crucial genes that maintain the aggressive behaviors of cancer cells is very important for clinical gene therapy of HCC. LpCat1 was reported to be highly expressed and exert pro-tumorigenic effect in a variety of cancers, including HCC. However, its detailed molecular mechanism remained unclear. In this study, we confirmed that LpCat1 was up-regulated in HCC tissues and cancer cell lines. The overexpressed LpCat1 promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells, and accelerated cell cycle progression, while knocking down LpCat1 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo, and arrested HCC cells at G0/G1 phase. Moreover, we proved for the first time that LpCat1 directly interacted with STAT1 which was generally recognized as a tumor suppressor in HCC. High levels of LpCat1 in HCC could inhibit STAT1 expression, up-regulate CyclinD1, CyclinE, CDK4 and MMP-9, and decrease p27kip1 to promote cancer progression. Conversely, down-regulation of LpCat1 would cause the opposite changes to repress the viability and motility of HCC cells. Consequently, we concluded that LpCat1 was a contributor to progression and metastasis of HCC by interacting with STAT1.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Pan ◽  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Benseng Tang ◽  
Li Jing ◽  
Bing Qiu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Recently, it has been demonstrated that circular RNA (circRNA) contributes to the production and progression in human cancer. However, the specific function and underlying mechanism of circ_0028171 in osteosarcoma (OS) still remain largely unclear and require to be investigated. Methods In our study, we confirmed differentially expressed circRNAs by microarray analysis in normal bone cells vs. OS cell lines. The expression of circ-0028171 in OS was measured by qRT-PCR. Nuclear-cytoplasmic fractionation was employed to identify the localization of circ-0028171, and RNase R and actinomycin D treatment were used to prove its circular characteristic. In vitro experiments, such as CCK-8 method, cell count, cell colony formation, transwell migration and invasion assays, and in vivo tumor models were adopted to evaluate the effect of circ_0028171. Further, luciferase reporter, RIP and RNA pull-down assays were conducted to confirm the binding sites of circ_0028171 with miR-218-5p. Results We found that circ_0028171 displayed a remarkably higher expression in both OS tissues and cell lines. Circ_0028171 mainly located in the cytoplasm as a stable cyclic transcript. Knockdown of circ_0028171 suppressed OS tumor growth in vitro and in vivo, while up-regulated circ_0028171 remarkably enhanced cell proliferation, migration and invasion abilities in OS. Several mechanistic experiments revealed that circ_0028171 served as a sponge of miR-218-5p to increase IKBKB expression. Conclusions our research reveals that circ_0028171 might promote the malignant behavior of OS tissues through miR-218-5p/IKBKB axis, which could be a potential novel marker for early diagnosis of OS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Liu ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Xuchen Dong ◽  
Haoran Li ◽  
Suwen Li ◽  
...  

AbstractMany studies have reported that circular RNAs play a vital role in the malignant progression of human cancers. However, the role and underlying mechanism of circRNAs in the development of gliomas have not been fully clarified. In this study, we found that circ_0001367 was downregulated in glioma tissues and showed a close correlation with glioma patient survival. Functional assays demonstrated that upregulation of circ_0001367 could suppress the proliferation, migration and invasion of glioma cells in vitro and inhibit glioma growth in vivo. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation assay indicated that circ_0001367 can serve as a sponge for miR-431 and that miR-431 acts as an oncogene by regulating neurexin 3 (NRXN3). In addition, rescue experiments verified that circ_0001367 could regulate both the expression and function of NRXN3 in a miR-431-dependent manner. In conclusion, circ_0001367 functions as an suppressor in glioma by targeting the miR-431/NRXN3 axis and may be a promising therapeutic target against gliomas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
DengYong Zhang ◽  
FangFang Chen ◽  
ShuoShuo Ma ◽  
YongChun Zhou ◽  
Wanliang Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) processes in multi-steps which involves the sophisticated interactions of genetics, epigenetics, and transcriptional changes. According to before investigations, methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3)-mediated m6A modification regulates the development of various cancers by regulating gene stability. However, the studies focusing on miRNA’s regulatory effect of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification on HCC progression are still limited. Methods: Immunochemistry (IHC) staining detected the histopathological changes in the tumor tissues. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), clone formation, and transwell assay investigated the changes in cancer cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. The RNA m6A level was confirmed by methylated RNA immunoprecipitation. The RNA stability assay indicated the half-life (t1/2) of RNA in HCC cells. The prognosis of the indicated patients’ cohort was analyzed using the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) datasets. Luciferase report analysis was used to study the potential binding between microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA. A mice tumor transplant model was further established to study the changes in tumor progression. Results: Follistatin-like 5 (FSTL5) was found to be significantly downregulated in HCC, and it inhibited the further progression of HCC. The RNA stability analysis indicated that the mRNA t1/2 gene of HCC cells was shortened. Besides, METTL3 reduced the stability of FSTL5 mRNA in a m6A-YTH domain family 2(YTHDF2)-dependent manner. Functional experiments revealed that the downregulated METTL3 inhibited the HCC progression by up-regulating FSTL5 in vitro and in vivo. Luciferase report analysis confirmed that miR-186-5p directly targeted the METTL3. Additionally, miR-186-5p inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of HCC cells by downregulating METTL3. We identified that miR-186-5p prevented the HCC progression by targeting METTL3 to regulate m6A-mediated FSTL5 stabilization. Conclusions: The miR-186-5p/METTL3/YTHDF2/FSTL5 axis perhaps point out a new direction for the targeted therapy of HCC.


Author(s):  
Yanli Li ◽  
Yang Tian ◽  
Wei Zhong ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
Yafeng Wang ◽  
...  

The tumor metastasis is the major hurdle for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), due in part to the lack of effective systemic treatments. DEPDC1, a novel oncoantigen upregulated in HCC, is thought to be a molecular-target for novel therapeutic drugs. Artemisia argyi is a traditional Chinese medicine with anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities. This study investigated the potential therapeutic benefits of Artemisia argyi essential oil (AAEO) in suppressing metastasis of HCC by targeting DEPDC1. Assessment of AAEO cytotoxicity was performed by MTT assay. Anti-metastatic effects of AAEO were investigated in vitro using wound healing and transwell assays. The HepG2 cells were transduced with lentiviral vector containing luciferase (Luc). A metastasis model of nude mice was established by tail vein injection of HepG2-Luc cells. The nude mice were treated with AAEO (57.5, 115, and 230 mg/kg) or sorafenib (40 mg/kg). Metastasis of HCC cells was monitored via in vivo bioluminescence imaging. After treatment for 21 days, tissues were collected for histological examination and immunohistochemistry analysis. Gene and protein levels were determined by real-time quantitative PCR and western blotting. The results revealed that AAEO significantly inhibits the migration and invasion in vitro in a concentration-dependent manner. In vivo assays further confirmed that AAEO markedly inhibits HCC metastasis into lung, brain, and femur tissues and exhibits low toxicity. Our results suggested that AAEO significantly downregulates the mRNA and protein expression of DEPDC1. Also, AAEO attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling through reduction of Wnt1 and β-catenin production. Moreover, AAEO prevented epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) by downregulation of vimentin and upregulation of E-cadherin. Furthermore, we found that DEPDC1 promoted HCC migration and invasion via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and EMT. These results demonstrate that AAEO effectively inhibits HCC metastasis via attenuating Wnt/β-catenin signaling and inhibiting EMT by suppressing DEPDC1 expression. Thus, AAEO likely acts as a novel inhibitor of the DEPDC1 dependent Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.


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