LncRNA DCST1-AS1 functions as a competing endogenous RNA to regulate FAIM2 expression by sponging miR-1254 in hepatocellular carcinoma

2019 ◽  
Vol 133 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Chen ◽  
Di Wu ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Yong Yang ◽  
Yunfei Duan ◽  
...  

Abstract Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in a variety of tumours; however, their biological function and clinical significance in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still unclear. In the present study, the clinical significance, biological function and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNA DCST1-AS1 in HCC were investigated. Differential lncRNAs in HCC were identified based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The biological function and mechanism of DCST1-AS1 were studied in vitro and in vivo. LncRNA DCST1-AS1 was highly expressed in HCC tissues, and the high expression of DCST1-AS1 was significantly correlated with larger tumours and shorter survival time. Moreover, DCST1-AS1 knockout significantly inhibited proliferation, promoted apoptosis and cycle arrest of HCC cells, and inhibited tumour growth in vivo. According to functional analysis, DCST1-AS1 competitively bound miR-1254, thus blocking the silencing effect of miR-1254 on the target gene Fas apoptosis inhibitor 2 (FAIM2). A novel lncRNA DCST1-AS1 that functions as an oncogene in HCC was discovered. DCST1-AS1 up-regulates the expression of FAIM2 by up-regulating the expression of miR-1254, ultimately promoting the proliferation of HCC cells. This research provides new therapeutic targets for HCC.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingqing Hu ◽  
Xiaochu Hu ◽  
Yalei Zhao ◽  
Lingjian Zhang ◽  
Ya Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Shugoshin-like protein 2 (SGOL2) is a centromeric protein that ensures the correct and orderly process of mitosis by protecting and maintaining centripetal adhesions during meiosis and mitosis. However, the role of SGOL2 in cancer is not well understood. Methods: The mRNA and protein levels of SGOL2 and survival analysis were conducted in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and further validated in 2 independent cohorts. Differential genes correlated with SGOL2 and mitotic arrest deficient 2 like 1 (MAD2) were obtained using LinkedOmics. Subsequently, loss-of-function and rescue assays were carried out in vitro and in vivo to assess the functions of SGOL2 in hepatic tumorigenisis. Findings: We found that SGOL2 was significantly overexpressed in HCC and predicted unfavorable overall survival in HCC patients. Next, we identified 47 differentially expressed genes positively correlated with both SGOL2 and MAD2 to be mainly involved in the cell cycle. In addition, SGOL2 downregulation suppressed the migration, invasion, proliferation, stemness and EMT of HCC cells and inhibited tumorigenesis in vivo. Furthermore, SGOL2 promoted tumor proliferation by activating MAD2-induced cell cycle dysregulation, which could be reversed by the MAD2 inhibitor M2I-1. We also proved that SGOL2 activated MAD2 by directly binding with MAD2. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that SGOL2 acts as an oncogene in HCC cells by directly activating MAD2 and then dysregulating the cell cycle, thereby providing a potential target for HCC patients in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lian Liu ◽  
Jia-Qi Sheng ◽  
Mu-Ru Wang ◽  
Yun Gan ◽  
Xiao-Li Wu ◽  
...  

Primary cilia are organelles protruding from cell surface into environment that function in regulating cell cycle and modulating cilia-related signal. Primary ciliogenesis and autophagy play important roles in tumorigenesis. However, the functions and interactions between primary cilia and autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been reported yet. Here, we aimed to investigate the relationship and function of primary cilia and autophagy in HCC. In vitro, we showed that serum starvation stimuli could trigger primary ciliogenesis in HCC cells. Blockage of primary ciliogenesis by IFT88 silencing enhanced the proliferation, migration, and invasion ability of HCC cells. In addition, inhibition of primary cilia could positively regulate autophagy. However, the proliferation, migration, and invasion ability which were promoted by IFT88 silencing could be partly reversed by inhibition of autophagy. In vivo, interference of primary cilia led to acceleration of tumor growth and increase of autophagic flux in xenograft HCC mouse models. Moreover, IFT88 high expression or ATG7 low expression in HCC tissues was correlated with longer survival time indicated by the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) analysis. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that blockage of primary ciliogenesis by IFT88 silencing had protumor effects through induction of autophagy in HCC. These findings define a newly recognized role of primary cilia and autophagy in HCC.


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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuqiang Wang ◽  
Huili Yang ◽  
Zhigang Deng ◽  
Yongjie Su ◽  
QinLiang Fang ◽  
...  

Background: Recent studies reveal that long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) play critical roles in the proliferation and migration of human cancer. Previous report has shown that LncRNA HOXA-AS2 was involved in carcinoma processes. However, the expression and biological function of HOXA-AS2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are poorly understood. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to detect the expression of HOXA-AS2 in HCC tissues and cell lines. The relation between lncRNA HOXA-AS2 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was assessed by chi-square test. The prognosis was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method, and compared differences between the two groups by log-rank test. The biological function of HOXA-AS2 on HCC cells were determined both in vitro and in vivo. Results: In the present study, we found that HOXA-AS2 expression was increased in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues and high HOXA-AS2 expression was associated with bigger tumor size, advanced tumor stage, and shorter survival time. Knockdown of HOXA-AS2 significantly inhibited HCC cell proliferation and invasion and resulted in an increase of apoptosis. Furthermore, inhibition of HOXA-AS2 in HCC cells significantly repressed tumorigenicity in nude mice. Conclusion: Our results indicated that the inhibition of HOXA-AS2 in HCC cells significantly inhibited cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo, which might provide a potential possibility for targeted therapy of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lihua Wang ◽  
Zheng Zhu ◽  
Qi Liang ◽  
Yecheng Tao ◽  
Junbo Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The significant changes in a series of biochemical activities during the process of tumorigenesis and development, including those in glucose, lipid, and amino acid metabolism can contribute to the ability of the cancer cells to proliferate indefinitely. WZ35 is a new small molecule YAP inhibitor, which can mediate YAP activity to inhibit the growth of gastric cancer, breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma. In this article, we explored how WZ35 can modulate YAP activity to influence the metabolism of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells to inhibit their proliferation activity. Methods: The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) data, the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and preclinical mouse model was utilized to detect the differential expression and vital role of YAP in HCC cells. A series of in vitro and in vivo experiments were performed to explore the antitumor activity of WZ35 and how it can target YAP activity to inhibit the tumor progression. UCSC combined JASPAR public databases were used to predicted possible binding sites of TEAD on GLUT1 promoter. Additionally, seahorse energy metabolism experiments and metabolomics analysis were utilized to explore the possible metabolic changes induced by WZ35. The clinical use of YAP and GLUT1 was verified by bioformatics and tissue microarrays of immunocytochemistry. Results: WZ35 can significantly attenuate the proliferation and growth of HCC. In terms of mechanism(s), it was demonstrated that the suppressive effects of WZ35 on YAP were achieved by promoting ROS production and the drug can exert its significant YAP inhibitory capacity to decrease the level of GLUT1, a glucose transporter located on the surface of cytomembrane, thereby resulting in a significant decrease in the ability of cells to take up glucose and thus perturb the metabolism. Moreover, through bioinformatics mining, it was proposed that YAP/GLUT1 has the potential to serve as promising target for HCC therapy. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that potential inhibitory effects of WZ35 were achieved by affecting the ROS-YAP-GLUT1 signal axis to induce the metabolic reprogramming of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. YAP/GLUT1 could serve as an important molecular target for both the diagnosis and treatment of HCC.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyun Ma ◽  
Meile Mo ◽  
Chao Tan ◽  
Jennifer Hui Juan Tan ◽  
Huishen Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been proven to be involved in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to investigate the function of LINC01146 in HCC.MethodsThe expression of LINC01146 in HCC tissues was explored via the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases, and was verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in our HCC cohort. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to assess the relationship between LINC01146 and the prognosis of HCC patients. Cell Counting Kit 8, colony formation assays, transwell assays, flow cytometric assays, and tumor formation models in nude mice were conducted to reveal the effects of LINC01146 on HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Bioinformatic methods were used to explore the possible potential pathways of LINC01146 in HCC.ResultsLINC01146 was significantly decreased in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues and it was found to be related to the clinical presentations of malignancy and the poor prognosis of HCC patients. Overexpression of LINC01146 inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion, while promoting the apoptosis of HCC cells in vitro. On the contrary, downregulation of LINC01146 exerted the opposite effects on HCC cells in vitro. In addition, overexpression of LINC01146 significantly inhibited tumor growth, while downregulation of LINC01146 promoted tumor growth in vivo. Furthermore, the co-expression genes of LINC01146 were mainly involved in the “metabolic pathway” and “complement and coagulation cascade pathway”. ConclusionLINC01146 expression was found to be decreased in HCC tissues and associated with the prognosis of HCC patients. It may serve as a cancer suppressor and prognostic biomarker in HCC.


Oncogenesis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingchao Wang ◽  
Gaoxiong Wang ◽  
Xionghong Tan ◽  
Kun Ke ◽  
Bixing Zhao ◽  
...  

AbstractPoor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients is frequently associated with rapid tumor growth, recurrence and drug resistance. MT1G is a low-molecular weight protein with high affinity for zinc ions. In the present study, we investigated the expression of MT1G, analyzed clinical significance of MT1G, and we observed the effects of MT1G overexpression on proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cell lines in vitro and in vivo. Our results revealed that MT1G was significantly downregulated in tumor tissues, and could inhibit the proliferation as well as enhance the apoptosis of HCC cells. The mechanism study suggested that MT1G increased the stability of p53 by inhibiting the expression of its ubiquitination factor, MDM2. Furthermore, MT1G also could enhance the transcriptional activity of p53 through direct interacting with p53 and providing appropriate zinc ions to p53. The modulation of MT1G on p53 resulted in upregulation of p21 and Bax, which leads cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, respectively. Our in vivo assay further confirmed that MT1G could suppress HCC tumor growth in nude mice. Overall, this is the first report on the interaction between MT1G and p53, and adequately uncover a new HCC suppressor which might have therapeutic values by diminishing the aggressiveness of HCC cells.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junan Qi ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Beibei Bie ◽  
Mengjiao Shi ◽  
Mengchen Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of hepatic malignancies with high mortality and poor prognosis and is the third most common cause of malignancies death worldwide which is more than 700,000 deaths per year. Baicalein, one of the major and bioactive flavonoid isolated from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, which is reported to have anti-proliferation effect in varying cancers, including HCC, whose underlying molecular mechanism is still largely unknown. In this study, the results showed that administration of baicalein significantly inhibited proliferation and colony formation, blocked cell cycle arrest at the S phase, and promoted apoptosis in HCC cells MHCC-97H and SMMC-7721 in vitro and reduced HCC tumor volume and weight in vivo. Increased microRNA (miR)‑3178 levels and decreased histone deacetylase 10 (HDAC10) expression were found in cells treated with baicalein and in patients’ HCC tissues. HDAC10 was identified as a target gene of miR‑3178 by luciferase activity and western blot. Both baicalein treatment and overexpression of miR-3178 could down-regulate protein expression of HDAC10 and inactivated AKT, MDM2/p53/Bcl2/Bax and FoxO3α/p27/CDK2/Cyclin E1 signal pathways. Not only that, knockdown of miR‑3178 could partly abolish the effects of baicalein and the restoration of HDAC10 could abated miR-3178-mediated role in HCC cells. Collectively, baicalein inhibited cell viability, blocks cell cycle and induces apoptosis in HCC cells by regulating the miR‑3178/HDAC10 pathway. This finding indicated that baicalein might be promising for treatment of HCC.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Tian ◽  
Wenbing Shangguan ◽  
Zuolin Zhou ◽  
Yao yao ◽  
Chunlei Fan ◽  
...  

AbstractChemoresistance remains a big challenge in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment. Several studies indicated that RNA-binding protein Lin28B serves an oncogenic role in HCC, but its activity in HCC chemotherapy has never been assessed. In this study, we found that overexpression of Lin28B significantly increased the paclitaxel chemoresistance in two different HCC cells lines while silencing Lin28B reduced the chemoresistance in paclitaxel-resistance HCC cells. Curcumin, a natural anti-cancer agent, increased the sensitivity of HCC cells to paclitaxel through inhibiting NF-κB stimulated Lin28B expression both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, by analyzing TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) LIHC (liver hepatocellular carcinoma) and GSE14520 databases, we found that Lin28B was highly up-regulated in HCC tissue compared with that in normal tissue and associated with α-fetoprotein levels, and that patients with Lin28B higher expression had a significant shorter overall survival time than those with Lin28B lower expression. Our data reveal that Lin28B may serve as a predictive biomarker and a treatment target to reverse HCC chemotherapy resistance in future clinical practice.Summary statementupregulation of Lin28B not only confers poor prognosis in HCC patients but also increases chemoresistance in HCC cells. Thus, Lin28B may serve as a predictive biomarker for use to reverse chemoresistance in clinical practice.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengwu Xiao ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Meimian Hua ◽  
Huan Chen ◽  
Bin Yang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The tripartite motif (TRIM) family proteins exhibit oncogenic roles in various cancers. The roles of TRIM27, a member of the TRIM super family, in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remained unexplored. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the clinical impact and roles of TRIM27 in the development of RCC. Methods The mRNA levels of TRIM27 and Kaplan–Meier survival of RCC were analyzed from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to measure the mRNA and protein levels of TRIM27 both in vivo and in vitro. siRNA and TRIM27 were exogenously overexpressed in RCC cell lines to manipulate TRIM27 expression. Results We discovered that TRIM27 was elevated in RCC patients, and the expression of TRIM27 was closely correlated with poor prognosis. The loss of function and gain of function results illustrated that TRIM27 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis in RCC cell lines. Furthermore, TRIM27 expression was positively associated with NF-κB expression in patients with RCC. Blocking the activity of NF-κB attenuated the TRIM27-mediated enhancement of proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis. TRIM27 directly interacted with Iκbα, an inhibitor of NF-κB, to promote its ubiquitination, and the inhibitory effects of TRIM27 on Iκbα led to NF-κB activation. Conclusions Our results suggest that TRIM27 exhibits an oncogenic role in RCC by regulating NF-κB signaling. TRIM27 serves as a specific prognostic indicator for RCC, and strategies targeting the suppression of TRIM27 function may shed light on future therapeutic approaches.


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