Upregulated lncRNA-UCA1 contributes to progression of hepatocellular carcinoma through inhibition of miR-216b and activation of FGFR1/ERK signaling pathway

Tetracycline-inducible shRNA targeting long non-coding RNA PVT1 inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in bladder cancer cells

Recent studies show that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may be significant functional regulators in tumor development, including bladder cancer. Here, we found that PVT1 was upregulated in bladder cancer tissues and cells. Further experiments revealed that PVT1 promoted cell proliferation and suppressed cell apoptosis. Furthermore we also used the emerging technology, synthetic biology, to create tetracycline-inducible small hairpin RNA (shRNA) vectors which silenced PVT1 in a dosage-dependent manner to inhibit the progression of bladder cancer. In conclusion, data suggest that PVT1 could be an oncogene and may be a therapeutic target in bladder cancer. Synthetic "tetracycline-on" switch system can be used to quantitatively control the expression of PVT1 in bladder cancer in response to different concentration of doxycycline to suppress the progression of bladder cancer.

Clinical significance of urothelial carcinoma associated 1 in colon cancer

This study aimed to investigate the expression levels of urothelial carcinoma associated 1 (UCA1) in cancer tissues and plasma of colon cancer patients, and evaluate its clinical significance. Quantitative real-time PCR was used to determine the expression levels of UCA1 in 80 pairs of colon cancer and adjacent normal tissues, plasma samples from 20 healthy controls, 20 colon cancer patients before and after tumor removal. The relationships between UCA1 expression and clinical features and overall survival were analyzed. Compared with adjacent normal tissues, UCA1 was significantly upregulated in colon cancer tissues, especially in cases with LNM and advanced TNM stages (P < 0.05). High UCA1 expression was associated with LMN, higher pT category, and advanced TNM stages (P < 0.05). Patients with high UCA1 expression had worse survival time than those with low UCA1 expression (adjusted HR = 2.002, 95% CI 1.007-3.981, P = 0.048). Furthermore, plasma levels of UCA1 in colon cancer patients were significantly higher than those of controls (P = 0.016). There was significant difference in plasma level of UCA1 between samples taken before and after surgery (P = 0.048). In conclusion, tissue expression of UCA1 is related to prognosis in colon cancer. Plasma UCA1 may serve as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and disease monitoring of colon cancer patients.

Cancer Specific Long Noncoding RNAs Show Differential Expression Patterns and Competing Endogenous RNA Potential in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate gene expression by acting with microRNAs (miRNAs). However, the roles of cancer specific lncRNA and its related competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) network in hepatocellular cell carcinoma (HCC) are not fully understood. The lncRNA profiles in 372 HCC patients, including 372 tumor and 48 adjacent non-tumor liver tissues, from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and NCBI GEO omnibus (GSE65485) were analyzed. Cancer specific lncRNAs (or HCC related lncRNAs) were identified and correlated with clinical features. Based on bioinformatics generated from miRcode, starBase, and miRTarBase, we constructed an lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network (ceRNA network) in HCC. We found 177 cancer specific lncRNAs in HCC (fold change ≥ 1.5, P < 0.01), 41 of them were also discriminatively expressed with gender, race, tumor grade, AJCC tumor stage, and AJCC TNM staging system. Six lncRNAs (CECR7, LINC00346, MAPKAPK5-AS1, LOC338651, FLJ90757, and LOC283663) were found to be significantly associated with overall survival (OS, log-rank P < 0.05). Collectively, our results showed the lncRNA expression patterns and a complex ceRNA network in HCC, and identified a complex cancer specific ceRNA network, which includes 14 lncRNAs and 17 miRNAs in HCC.

HCV infection, IFN response and the coding and non-coding host cell genome

HCV is an ideal model to study how the infected cell is altered to allow the establishment of a chronic infection. After infection, the transcriptome of the cell changes in response to the virus or to the antiviral pathways induced by infection. The cell has evolved to sense HCV soon after infection and to activate antiviral pathways. In turn, HCV has evolved to block the antiviral pathways induced by the cell and, at the same time, to use some for its own benefit. In this review, we summarize the proviral and antiviral factors induced in HCV infected cells. These factors can be proteins and microRNAs, but also long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) that are induced by infection. Interestingly, several of the lncRNAs upregulated after HCV infection have oncogenic functions, suggesting that upregulation of lncRNAs could explain, at least in part, the increased rate of liver tumors observed in HCV-infected patients. Other lncRNAs induced by HCV infection may regulate the expression of coding genes required for replication or control genes involved in the cellular antiviral response. Given the evolutionary pressure imposed by viral infections and that lncRNAs are specially targeted by evolution, we believe that the study of proviral and antiviral lncRNAs may lead to unexpected discoveries that may have a strong impact on basic science and translational research.

Up-regulation of long non-coding RNA CCAT2 correlates with tumor metastasis and poor prognosis in cervical squamous cell cancer patients

BACKGROUND

Dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays critical roles in tumor progression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between lncRNA CCAT2 expression and cervical squamous cell cancer susceptibility and prognosis.

METHODS

Expression levels of lncRNA CCAT2 in 123 cervical squamous cell tumor specimens were determined by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), to clarify the clinical significance of lncRNA CCAT2 in cervical squamous cell cancer, we further discussed the relationship between lncRNA CCAT2 expression and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS

In the present study, we found that lncRNA CCAT2 was up-regulated in cervical squamous cell cancer tissues compared to the adjacent non-tumor tissues. In addition, the high lncRNA CCAT2 expression was significantly associated with the FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis and depth of cervical invasion (P<0.05). Furthermore, patients with high expression of lncRNA CCAT2 had poor OS (HR=2.813, 95% CI: 1.504-6.172; P=0.017), and PFS rates (HR=3.072, 95% CI: 1.716-8.174; P=0.008). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard model analysis demonstrated that high lncRNA CCAT2 expression was an independent poor prognostic factor for cervical squamous cell cancer patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggested that high expression of lncRNA CCAT2 is related to the prognosis of cervical squamous cell cancer; it may be a new prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for cervical squamous cell cancer intervention.

Exploration of Deregulated Long Non-Coding RNAs in Association with Hepatocarcinogenesis and Survival

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are larger than 200 nucleotides in length and pervasively expressed across the genome. An increasing number of studies indicate that lncRNA transcripts play integral regulatory roles in cellular growth, division, differentiation and apoptosis. Deregulated lncRNAs have been observed in a variety of human cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We determined the expression profiles of 90 lncRNAs for 65 paired HCC tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues, and 55 lncRNAs were expressed in over 90% of samples. Eight lncRNAs were significantly down-regulated in HCC tumor compared to non-tumor tissues (p < 0.05), but no lncRNA achieved statistical significance after Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Within tumor tissues, carrying more aberrant lncRNAs (6–7) was associated with a borderline significant reduction in survival (HR = 8.5, 95% CI: 1.0–72.5). The predictive accuracy depicted by the AUC was 0.93 for HCC survival when using seven deregulated lncRNAs (likelihood ratio test p = 0.001), which was similar to that combining the seven lncRNAs with tumor size and treatment (AUC = 0.96, sensitivity = 87%, specificity = 87%). These data suggest the potential association of deregulated lncRNAs with hepatocarcinogenesis and HCC survival.

Long non-coding RNA UCA1 contributes to the progression of prostate cancer and regulates proliferation through KLF4-KRT6/13 signaling pathway

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) UCA1 have been shown to paly an important regulatory roles in cancer biology, and UCA1 dysfunction is related to TNM stage, metastasis and postoperative survival in several cancers. However, the biological role and clinical significance of UCA1 in the carcinogenesis of prostate cancer (PC) remain largely unclear. Herein, we found that UCA1 was abnormally upregulated in tumor tissues from PC patients, and patients with high UCA1 levels had a significantly poorer prognosis. Intriguingly, the mRNA and protein levels of KLF4 were significantly increased in tumor tissues, which was highly correlated to UCA1 levels. Moreover, UCA1 depletion inhibited the growth and induced apoptosis in PC3 and LNCaP cell lines. In addition, UCA1 loss-of-function could decrease KLF4 expression, subsequently, the downregulation of KRT6 and KRT13. Taken together, our study indicated that UCA1 had a crucial role in the tumorigenesis of PC. Moreover, UCA1 loss-of-function inhibited cell proliferation and induced cell apoptosis, at least partially, through inactivation KLF4-KRT6/13 cascade.

Long noncoding RNA, the methylation of genomic elements and their emerging crosstalk in hepatocellular carcinoma

The epigenetic mechanism that incorporates DNA methylation alterations, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA expression has been identified as a major characteristic in distinguishing physiological and pathological settings of cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the third leading cause of mortality related cancer. The advance in methylation modification of chromatin elements (for both genomic DNA and histone tails) and the emerging roles of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) have given us a better understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying HCC. Recently, methods like genome-wide lncRNA profiling and histone hallmark detection were reported to discover mass tumor-associated lncRNAs epigenetically deregulated by differential chromosome modification, mainly by genomic DNA and histone methylation. Therefore, aberrant methylation modification of certain particular lncRNA genes could be crucial events correlating with unfavorable outcomes in HCC. In addition, amount of lncRNAs could act as a manipulator for DNA methylation or a scaffold for histone modification to affect key signaling pathways in hepatocarcinogenesis. This suggests that methylation modification of chromatin elements may have functional crosstalk with lncRNA. Here, we aim to outline the emerging role of the methylation and lncRNA, and their crosstalk of molecular mechanism.

Macrophage infiltration promotes invasiveness of breast cancer cells via activating long non-coding RNA UCA1

There is now considerable evidence supporting the view that macrophage infiltration is playing a critical role in the proliferation and progression of breast cancer but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. To this end, using long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression profiling, we examined changes in lncRNA expression in breast cancer cells treated with conditioned medium (CM) from cultured human THP-1 macrophages. We found that treatment with macrophage CM induced the expression of numerous lncRNAs, including urothelial cancer associated 1 (UCA1). Knockdown of UCA1 using shRNA inhibited AKT phosphorylation and abolished invasiveness of tumor cells induced by macrophage CM. Consistent with these results; we further showed that UCA1 level was significantly enhanced in human primary breast tumors and correlated with advanced clinical stage, supporting its role in promoting carcinogenesis and progression of breast cancer. Together, these results suggest that macrophage could promote invasiveness of breast cancer cells by enhancing expression of lncRNA UCA1.

Upregulated lncRNA-UCA1 contributes to progression of lung cancer and is closely related to clinical diagnosis as a predictive biomarker in plasma

OBJECTIVE

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play an important regulatory roles in cancer biology, and the lncRNA-UCA1 is upregulated in several cancers such as bladder cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer, however, the contributions of UCA1 to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain largely unknown.

METHODS

Expression levels of lncRNA-UCA1 in tumor tissues and plasma from NSCLC patients was evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR, and its association with overall survival of patients was analyzed by statistical analysis. Moreover, the UCA1 expression correlation between tumor tissues and plasma was demonstrated by linear regression analysis.

RESULTS

the results showed that the expression of UCA1 in NSCLC tissues was obviously higher than that observed in pair-matched adjacent nontumourous tissues, (P < 0.001). The agarose gel electrophoretogram of RT-PCR products further confirmed that UCA1 was increased in NSCLC tissues. To assess the correlation of UCA1 expression with Clinicopathological data, we found that the expression level of UCA1 was associate with histological grade (P < 0.001) and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001). Intriguingly, the expression of UCA1 was significantly increased in plasma from NSCLC patients. The UCA1 expression measurements obtained from plasma and tumor tissues were strongly correlated in 60 patient samples (r = 0.881). By receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, plasma UCA1 provided the highly diagnostic performance for detection of NSCLC (the area under the ROC curve (AUC), 0.886; P < 0.001). In conclusion, the current results indicated that Plasma UCA1 could serve as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of NSCLC. UCA1 as a biomarker in clinical application might significantly improve the efficacy of human NSCLC screening.

Combined identification of long non-coding RNA XIST and HIF1A-AS1 in serum as an effective screening for non-small cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVE

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) XIST and HIF1A-AS1 have been shown to play important regulatory roles in cancer biology, and lncRNA-XIST and HIF1A-AS1 are upregulated in several cancers such as glioblastoma, breast cancer and thoracoabdominal aorta aneurysm, however, its value in the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical significance of serum XIST and HIF1A-AS1 as a biomarker in the screening of NSCLC.

METHODS

Expression levels of lncRNA-XIST and HIF1A-AS1 in tumor tissues and serum from NSCLC patients were evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR, and its association with overall survival of patients was analyzed by statistical analysis. Moreover, the XIST and lncRNA-XIST expression correlation between tumor tissues and plasma was demonstrated by linear regression analysis.

RESULTS

The levels of XIST (P < 0.05) and HIF1A-AS1 (P < 0.05) were significantly increased in tumor tissues or serum from NSCLC patients as compared to those of control group. Correlation of lncRNA-XIST or HIF1A-AS1 expression between tumor tissues and serum from the same individuals was confirmed in NSCLC patients. Moreover, serum levels of XIST and HIF1A-AS1 were significantly decreased after surgical treatment as compared to pre-operative. The ROC curves illustrated strong separation between the NSCLC patients and control group, with an AUC of 0.834 (95% CI: 0.726-0.935; P < 0.001) for XIST and 0.876 (95% CI: 0.793-0.965; P < 0.001) for HIF1A-AS1, however, the combination of XIST and HIF1A-AS1 yielded an AUC of 0.931 (95% CI: 0.869-0.990; P < 0.001), which was significantly improved as compared to XIST or HIF1A-AS1 alone.

CONCLUSION

Our results demonstrated that increased serum XIST and HIF1A-AS1 could be used as a predictive biomarker for NSCLC screening, and that combination of XIST and HIF1A-AS1 had a higher positive diagnostic efficiency of NSCLC than XIST or HIF1A-AS1 alone.