Silencing long non-coding RNA LINC00960 inhibits osteosarcoma proliferation by sponging miR-107 to downregulate SALL4

Long noncoding RNA profiling unveils LINC00960 as unfavorable prognostic biomarker promoting triple negative breast cancer progression

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a critical role in breast cancer pathogenesis, including Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) subtype. Identifying the lncRNA expression patterns across different breast cancer subtypes could provide valuable insights into their potential utilization as disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets. In this study, we profiled lncRNA expression in 96 breast cancer cases, revealing significant differences compared to normal breast tissue. Variations across breast cancer subtypes, including Hormone Receptor-positive (HR + ), HER2-positive (HER2 + ), HER2 + HR + , and TNBC, as well as in relation to tumor grade and patients' age at diagnosis were observed. TNBC and HER2+ subtypes showed distinct clustering, while HER2 + HR+ tumors clustered closer to HR+ tumors based on their lncRNA profiles. Our data identified numerous enriched lncRNAs in TNBC, notably the elevated expression of LINC00960, which was subsequently validated in two additional datasets. Analysis of LINC00960 expression in an independent TNBC cohort (n = 360) revealed elevated expression of LINC00960 to correlate with cell movement, invasion, proliferation, and migration functional categories. Depletion of LINC00960 significantly reduced TNBC cell viability, colony formation, migration, and three-dimensional growth, while increasing cell death. Mechanistically, transcriptomic profiling of LINC00960-depleted cells confirmed its tumor-promoting role, likely through sponging of hsa-miR-34a-5p, hsa-miR-16-5p, and hsa-miR-183-5p, leading to the upregulation of cancer-promoting genes including BMI1, KRAS, and AKT3. Our findings highlight the distinct lncRNA expression patterns in breast cancer subtypes and underscore the crucial role for LINC00960 in promoting TNBC pathogenesis, suggesting its potential utilization as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target.

LINC00960 affects osteosarcoma treatment and prognosis by regulating the tumor immune microenvironment

Background

Osteosarcoma (OS), the commonest primary malignant bone tumor, is mainly seen in children and teenagers. LINC00960, a newly discovered long intergenic non-protein coding RNA, has been shown to be important in certain cancers. The objective of this study was to assess LINC00960's prognostic and therapeutic value and analyze its mechanism of action in osteosarcoma.

Methods

With the transcriptome information of 85 osteosarcomas from the TARGET database, the Cox regression analyses, K-M curve, and ROC curve, were conducted for survival and prognostic analysis. The functional analysis was conducted using GO, KEGG, GSEA, and GSVA. The ESTIMATE, ssGSEA, MCP-counter, ImmuCellAI algorithms, and immune checkpoint correlation analysis were performed for immune-related analysis. The single-cell RNA sequencing data of 6 osteosarcoma patients was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. The Tumor Immune Dysfunction and Exclusion algorithm and the "pRRophetic" R package were performed to predict the response to immunotherapy and chemotherapy.

Results

LINC00960 overexpression is associated with osteosarcoma metastasis and poor prognosis. Based on the LINC00960 expression, the nomogram prediction model was created, which showed good accuracy and precision to predict the overall survival of osteosarcoma. Single-cell and immune-related analysis showed that LINC00960 is mainly highly expressed in the tumor-exhausted CD8 T cells in osteosarcoma. In osteosarcoma, the expression of LIC00960 was favorably connected with immune checkpoint-related genes and negatively correlated with immune infiltration. TIDE analysis indicated that low LINC00960 expression patients might have a better response to immunotherapy. Drug sensitivity analysis showed that high LINC00960 expression patients might have better responses to Bleomycin and Doxorubicin.

Conclusion

LINC00960 has the potential to be a novel biomarker for predicting overall survival in osteosarcoma patients and to guide more individualized treatment and clinical decision-making.

Exosomal MFI2-AS1 sponge miR-107 promotes non-small cell lung cancer progression through NFAT5

BACKGROUND

Non-small cell lung cancer is a heterogeneous disease driven by extensive molecular alterations. Exosomes are small vesicles with diameters ranging from 30 to 150 nm released by various cell types and are important mediators of information transmission in tumor cells. Exosomes contain proteins, lipids, and various types of nucleic acids, including miRNAs and even DNA and RNA. MFI2 Antisense RNA 1 (MFI2-AS1) is a long noncoding RNA known to promote cell proliferation, metastasis and invasion in a variety of malignancies.

METHODS

The relative expression of MFI2-AS1 in NSCLC tissues was examined using RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) staining. Transwell migration and wound healing assays were used to analyze cell migration and invasion abilities. Tube formation is used to assess angiogenic capacity. CCK8 was used to assess cell proliferation ability. RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) experiments confirmed that MFI2-AS1 acts as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for miR-107. Dual-luciferase reporter assays were used to identify potential binding between MFI2-miRNA and target mRNA. In vivo experiments were performed by injecting exosomes into subcutaneous tumors to establish animal models.

RESULT

Exosomal MFI2-AS1 increases NFAT5 expression by sponging miR-107, which in turn activates the PI3K/AKT pathway. We found that the MFI2-AS1/miR-107/NFAT5 axis plays an important role in exosome-mediated NSCLC progression, is involved in pre-metastatic niche formation, and can be used as a blood-based biomarker for NSCLC metastasis.

CONCLUSION

We demonstrate that MFI2-AS1 is upregulated in exosomes secreted by metastatic NSCLC cells and can be transferred to HUVECs, promoting angiogenesis and migration.

lncRNA LINC00960 promotes apoptosis by sponging ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1-targeting miR-183-5p

<p indent="0mm">The ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1/RNF41 promotes the ubiquitin-dependent degradation of multiple important substrates, including BRUCE/BIRC6, a giant ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme inhibiting both apoptosis and autophagy. miR-183-5p is associated with various malignancies potentially by targeting dozens of genes. Here, we show that the lncRNA LINC00960 binds to the Nrdp1-targeting miR-183-5p and promotes apoptosis. Compared to other known miR-183-5p targets, Nrdp1 mRNA is among the few with top scores to complement miR-183-5p. miR-183-5p binds to the <sc>3'UTR</sc> of Nrdp1 mRNA and downregulates Nrdp1 at both the mRNA and protein levels. The miR-183-5p mimics inhibit DNA damage-induced apoptosis probably by upregulating BRUCE level, whereas the miR-183-5p inhibitor suppresses the effects of miR-183-5p. LINC00960 is the noncoding RNA with the highest score to complement miR-183-5p. LINC00960 overexpression reduces, but its knockdown increases, the level of miR-183-5p, whereas LINC00960 overexpression increases, but its knockdown decreases, the level of Nrdp1 and apoptosis. Importantly, the expression of LINC00960, which is associated with multiple types of tumors, positively correlates with that of Nrdp1 in several tumors but inversely correlates with that of miR-183-5p in multiple human tumor cell lines, as analysed by quantitative PCR. Thus, miR-183-5p downregulates Nrdp1 expression and inhibits apoptosis, whereas LINC00960 upregulates Nrdp1 and promotes apoptosis by inhibiting miR-183-5p. These results may provide new ideas for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of apoptosis-related diseases, such as tumors and neurodegenerative diseases. </p>.

Screening for MicroRNA combination with engineered exosomes as a new tool against osteosarcoma in elderly patients

The most common primary malignant bone sarcoma is Osteogenic sarcoma (OS) which has a bimodal age distribution. Unfortunately, the treatment of OS was less effective for elderly patients than for younger ones. The study aimed to explore a new microRNA (miRNA) which can bind to combining engineered exosomes for treatment of older OS patients. Based on GSE65071 and miRNet 2.0, two up-regulated miRNAs (miR-328, miR-107) and seven down-regulated miRNAs (miR-133b, miR-206, miR-1-3p, miR-133a, miR-449a, miR-181daysay, miR-134) were selected. Next, we used FunRich software to predict the up-stream transcription factors (TFs) of differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs). By comparing target genes predicted from DE-miRNAs with differentially expressed genes, we identified 12 down-regulated and 310 up-regulated mRNAs. For KEGG analysis, the most enriched KEGG pathway was Cell cycle, Spliceosome, and Protein digestion and absorption. By using protein-protein interactions network, topological analysis algorithm and GEPIA database, miR-449a /CCNB1 axis was identified. Experiments in vitro were conducted to confirm the results too. MiRNA-449a is down-regulated in osteosarcoma and suppresses cell proliferation by targeting CCNB1. Our findings not only reveal a novel mechanism of miR-449a /CCNB1 in OS but also had laid the groundwork for further investigation and analysis in the field of exosome engineering.