LncRNA ZNF667-AS1 inhibits inflammatory response and promotes recovery of spinal cord injury via suppressing JAK-STAT pathway

African Swine Fever Virus Envelope Glycoprotein CD2v Interacts with Host CSF2RA to Regulate the JAK2-STAT3 Pathway and Inhibit Apoptosis to Facilitate Virus Replication

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly infectious disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV) in swine. It is characterized by the death of cells in infected tissues. However, the molecular mechanism of ASFV-induced cell death in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) remains largely unknown. In this study, transcriptome sequencing of ASFV-infected PAMs found that ASFV activated the JAK2-STAT3 pathway in the early stages and apoptosis in the late stages of infection. Meanwhile, the JAK2-STAT3 pathway was confirmed to be essential for ASFV replication. AG490 and andrographolide (AND) inhibited the JAK2-STAT3 pathway, promoted ASFV-induced apoptosis, and exerted antiviral effects. Additionally, CD2v promoted STAT3 transcription and phosphorylation as well as translocation into the nucleus. CD2v is the main envelope glycoprotein of the ASFV, and further investigations showed that CD2v deletion downregulates the JAK2-STAT3 pathway and promotes apoptosis to inhibit ASFV replication. Furthermore, we discovered that CD2v interacts with CSF2RA, which is a hematopoietic receptor superfamily member in myeloid cells and a key receptor protein that activates receptor-associated JAK and STAT proteins. In this study, CSF2RA small interfering RNA (siRNA) downregulated the JAK2-STAT3 pathway and promoted apoptosis to inhibit ASFV replication. Taken together, ASFV replication requires the JAK2-STAT3 pathway, while CD2v interacts with CSF2RA to regulate the JAK2-STAT3 pathway and inhibit apoptosis to facilitate virus replication. These results provide a theoretical basis for the escape mechanism and pathogenesis of ASFV. IMPORTANCE African swine fever is a hemorrhagic disease caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV), which infects pigs of different breeds and ages, with a fatality rate of up to 100%. It is one of the key diseases affecting the global livestock industry. Currently, no commercial vaccines or antiviral drugs are available. Here, we show that ASFV replicates via the JAK2-STAT3 pathway. More specifically, ASFV CD2v interacts with CSF2RA to activate the JAK2-STAT3 pathway and inhibit apoptosis, thereby maintaining the survival of infected cells and promoting viral replication. This study revealed an important implication of the JAK2-STAT3 pathway in ASFV infection and identified a novel mechanism by which CD2v has evolved to interact with CSF2RA and maintain JAK2-STAT3 pathway activation to inhibit apoptosis, thus elucidating new information regarding the signal reprogramming of host cells by ASFV.

Research Progress of Long Non-coding RNAs in Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can result in a partial or complete loss of motor and sensory function below the injured segment, which has a significant impact on patients' quality of life and places a significant social burden on them. Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) is a 200-1000 bp non-coding RNA that has been shown to have a key regulatory role in the progression of a variety of neurological illnesses. Many studies have demonstrated that differentially expressed LncRNAs following spinal cord injury can participate in inflammatory damage, apoptosis, and nerve healing by functioning as competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA); at the same time, it has a significant regulatory effect on sequelae such neuropathic pain. As a result, we believe that LncRNAs could be useful as a molecular regulatory target in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of spinal cord injury.

The lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 Inhibits Propagation, Invasion, and Angiogenesis of Gastric Cancer by Silencing the Expression of N-Cadherin and VEGFA

Purpose. Gastric cancer is one of the most common malignancies with high mortality worldwide. It is known that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. This study investigates the role of lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 in gastric cancer cells. Methods. We have applied real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) to study the levels of ZNF667-AS1 in gastric cancer biopsies and cell lines. The effects of ZNF667-AS1 on the propagation, clonogenicity, metastasis, and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells were evaluated by calorimetry, colony formation, cell migration, and angiogenesis assays. Western blotting was used to identify the levels of proteins involved in cancer invasion and angiogenesis signaling pathways. Result. It was found that lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 was downregulated in gastric cancer biopsies. Overexpression of ZNF667-AS1 reduced the propagation, migration, and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells. Molecular mechanism studies displayed that the high level of lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 promoted the expression of E-cadherin and inhibited the expression of N-cadherin and VEGFA, leading to the inhibition of the proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells. Conclusion. As a tumor suppressor gene, lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 significantly hinders the propagation, metastasis, and angiogenesis of gastric cancer cells by promoting the expression of E-cadherin and inhibiting the expression of N-cadherin and VEGFA. Therefore, lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 could play a synergistic therapeutic role by targeting tumor cells and vascular endothelial cells, which represents a new therapeutic scheme for novel therapeutics of gastric cancer.

Coding and long non-coding gene expression changes in the CNS traumatic injuries

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spinal cord injury (SCI) are two main central nervous system (CNS) traumas, caused by external physical insults. Both injuries have devastating effects on the quality of life, and there is no effective therapy at present. Notably, gene expression profiling using bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) have revealed significant changes in many coding and non-coding genes, as well as important pathways in SCI and TBI. Particularly, recent studies have revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with lengths greater than 200 nucleotides and without protein-coding potential have tissue- and cell type-specific expression pattern and play critical roles in CNS injury by gain- and loss-of-function approaches. LncRNAs have been shown to regulate protein-coding genes or microRNAs (miRNAs) directly or indirectly, participating in processes including inflammation, glial activation, cell apoptosis, and vasculature events. Therefore, lncRNAs could serve as potential targets for the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of SCI and TBI. In this review, we highlight the recent progress in transcriptome studies of SCI and TBI and insights into molecular mechanisms.

Circ-Ctnnb1 regulates neuronal injury in spinal cord injury through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

STUDY DESIGN

Spinal cord injury (SCI) rat model and cell model were established for in vivo and in vitro experiments. Functional assays were utilized to explore the role of the circRNAs derived from catenin beta 1 (mmu_circ_0001859, circ-Ctnnb1 herein) in regulating neuronal cell viability and apoptosis. Bioinformatics analysis and mechanism experiments were conducted to assess the underlying molecular mechanism of circ-Ctnnb1.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to probe into the biological function of circ-Ctnnb1 in neuronal cells of SCI.

METHODS

The rat model of SCI and hypoxia-induced cell model were constructed to examine circ-Ctnnb1 expression in SCI through quantitative reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan (BBB) score was utilized for evaluating the neurological function. Terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl Transferase Mediated Nick End labeling (TUNEL) assays were performed to assess the apoptosis of neuronal cells. RNase R and Actinomycin D (ActD) were used to treat cells to evaluate the stability of circ-Ctnnb1.

RESULTS

Circ-Ctnnb1 was highly expressed in SCI rat models and hypoxia-induced neuronal cells, and its deletion elevated the apoptosis rate of hypoxia-induced neuronal cells. Furthermore, circ-Ctnnb1 activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway via sponging mircoRNA-205-5p (miR-205-5p) to up-regulate Ctnnb1 and Wnt family member 2B (Wnt2b).

CONCLUSION

Circ-Ctnnb1 promotes SCI through regulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling via modulating the miR-205-5p/Ctnnb1/Wnt2b axis.

LPI-HyADBS: a hybrid framework for lncRNA-protein interaction prediction integrating feature selection and classification

Background

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have dense linkages with a plethora of important cellular activities. lncRNAs exert functions by linking with corresponding RNA-binding proteins. Since experimental techniques to detect lncRNA-protein interactions (LPIs) are laborious and time-consuming, a few computational methods have been reported for LPI prediction. However, computation-based LPI identification methods have the following limitations: (1) Most methods were evaluated on a single dataset, and researchers may thus fail to measure their generalization ability. (2) The majority of methods were validated under cross validation on lncRNA-protein pairs, did not investigate the performance under other cross validations, especially for cross validation on independent lncRNAs and independent proteins. (3) lncRNAs and proteins have abundant biological information, how to select informative features need to further investigate.

Results

Under a hybrid framework (LPI-HyADBS) integrating feature selection based on AdaBoost, and classification models including deep neural network (DNN), extreme gradient Boost (XGBoost), and SVM with a penalty Coefficient of misclassification (C-SVM), this work focuses on finding new LPIs. First, five datasets are arranged. Each dataset contains lncRNA sequences, protein sequences, and an LPI network. Second, biological features of lncRNAs and proteins are acquired based on Pyfeat. Third, the obtained features of lncRNAs and proteins are selected based on AdaBoost and concatenated to depict each LPI sample. Fourth, DNN, XGBoost, and C-SVM are used to classify lncRNA-protein pairs based on the concatenated features. Finally, a hybrid framework is developed to integrate the classification results from the above three classifiers. LPI-HyADBS is compared to six classical LPI prediction approaches (LPI-SKF, LPI-NRLMF, Capsule-LPI, LPI-CNNCP, LPLNP, and LPBNI) on five datasets under 5-fold cross validations on lncRNAs, proteins, lncRNA-protein pairs, and independent lncRNAs and independent proteins. The results show LPI-HyADBS has the best LPI prediction performance under four different cross validations. In particular, LPI-HyADBS obtains better classification ability than other six approaches under the constructed independent dataset. Case analyses suggest that there is relevance between ZNF667-AS1 and Q15717.

Conclusions

Integrating feature selection approach based on AdaBoost, three classification techniques including DNN, XGBoost, and C-SVM, this work develops a hybrid framework to identify new linkages between lncRNAs and proteins.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04485-x.

Photobiomodulation inhibits the activation of neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes by inhibiting Lcn2/JAK2-STAT3 crosstalk after spinal cord injury in male rats

BACKGROUND

Neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes begin to activate and participate in pathological processes after spinal cord injury (SCI), subsequently causing severe secondary damage and affecting tissue repair. We have previously reported that photobiomodulation (PBM) can promote functional recovery by reducing neuroinflammation after SCI, but little is known about the underlying mechanism. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether PBM ameliorates neuroinflammation by modulating the activation of microglia and astrocytes after SCI.

METHODS

Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: a sham control group, an SCI + vehicle group and an SCI + PBM group. PBM was performed for two consecutive weeks after clip-compression SCI models were established. The activation of neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes, the level of tissue apoptosis, the number of motor neurons and the recovery of motor function were evaluated at different days post-injury (1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 days post-injury, dpi). Lipocalin 2 (Lcn2) and Janus kinase-2 (JAK2)-signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) signaling were regarded as potential targets by which PBM affected neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes. In in vitro experiments, primary microglia and astrocytes were irradiated with PBM and cotreated with cucurbitacin I (a JAK2-STAT3 pathway inhibitor), an adenovirus (shRNA-Lcn2) and recombinant Lcn2 protein.

RESULTS

PBM promoted the recovery of motor function, inhibited the activation of neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes, alleviated neuroinflammation and tissue apoptosis, and increased the number of neurons retained after SCI. The upregulation of Lcn2 and the activation of the JAK2-STAT3 pathway after SCI were suppressed by PBM. In vitro experiments also showed that Lcn2 and JAK2-STAT3 were mutually promoted and that PBM interfered with this interaction, inhibiting the activation of microglia and astrocytes.

CONCLUSION

Lcn2/JAK2-STAT3 crosstalk is involved in the activation of neurotoxic microglia and astrocytes after SCI, and this process can be suppressed by PBM.

LncRNA MORT (ZNF667-AS1) in Cancer-Is There a Possible Role in Gynecological Malignancies?

Gynecological cancers (GCs) are currently among the major threats to female health. Moreover, there are different histologic subtypes of these cancers, which are defined as ‘rare’ due to an annual incidence of <6 per 100,000 women. The majority of these tend to be associated with a poor prognosis. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a critical role in the normal development of organisms as well as in tumorigenesis. LncRNAs can be classified into tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes, depending on their function within the cellular context and the signaling pathways in which they are involved. These regulatory RNAs are potential therapeutic targets for cancer due to their tissue and tumor specificity. However, there still needs to be a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which lncRNAs are involved in the regulation of numerous biological functions in humans, both in normal health and disease. The lncRNA Mortal Obligate RNA Transcript (MORT; alias ZNF667-AS1) has been identified as a tumor-related lncRNA. ZNF667-AS1 gene, located in the human chromosome region 19q13.43, has been shown to be silenced by DNA hypermethylation in several cancers. In this review, we report on the biological functions of ZNF667-AS1 from recent studies and describe the regulatory functions of ZNF667-AS1 in human disease, including cancer. Furthermore, we discuss the emerging insights into the potential role of ZNF667-AS1 as a biomarker and novel therapeutic target in cancer, including GCs (ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancers).

Emerging Exosomes and Exosomal MiRNAs in Spinal Cord Injury

Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious traumatic event to the spinal cord with considerable morbidity and mortality. This injury leads to short- and long-term variations in the spinal cord, and can have a serious effect on the patient's sensory, motor, or autonomic functions. Due to the complicated pathological process of SCI, there is currently no successful clinical treatment strategy. Exosomes, extracellular vesicles (EVs) with a double-layer membrane structure of 30-150 nm diameter, have recently been considered as critical mediators for communication between cells and tissues by transferring proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. Further studies verified that exosomes participate in the pathophysiological process of several diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and cardiovascular diseases, and could have a significant impact in their treatment. As natural carriers of biologically active cargos, exosomes have emerged as pathological mediators of SCI. In this review article, we critically discuss the functions of exosomes as intracellular mediators and potential treatments in SCI and provide an outlook on future research.

Long non-coding RNAs mediate cerebral vascular pathologies after CNS injuries

Central nervous system (CNS) injuries are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, accompanied with high medical costs and a decreased quality of life. Brain vascular disorders are involved in the pathological processes of CNS injuries and might play key roles for their recovery and prognosis. Recently, increasing evidence has shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which comprise a very heterogeneous group of non-protein-coding RNAs greater than 200 nucleotides, have emerged as functional mediators in the regulation of vascular homeostasis under pathophysiological conditions. Remarkably, lncRNAs can regulate gene transcription and translation, thus interfering with gene expression and signaling pathways by different mechanisms. Hence, a deeper insight into the function and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs following CNS injury, especially cerebrovascular-related lncRNAs, could help in establishing potential therapeutic strategies to improve or inhibit neurological disorders. In this review, we highlight recent advancements in understanding of the role of lncRNAs and their application in mediating cerebrovascular pathologies after CNS injury.

Tumor microenvironment immune-related lncRNA signature for patients with melanoma

Background

The incidence of malignant melanoma accounts for only approximately 5% of skin malignant tumors, however, it accounts for 75% of its mortality. Long-chain non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has a wide range of functional activities. Disorders of lncRNAs may lead to the occurrence and development of melanoma, and may also be related to immunotherapy.

Methods

The transcriptomic data of primary and metastatic melanoma patients and 331 immune-related genes were downloaded from skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) in the The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. On this basis, 460 immunologically relevant lncRNAs were identified by constructing a co-expression network of immunogenic genes and lncRNAs in primary and metastatic melanoma patients. Prognostic genes were screened using univariate Cox regression analysis. ROC analysis was performed to evaluate the robustness of the prognostic signature.

Results

Univariate correlation analysis showed that only 3 of the 23 immune-related lncRNAs were at high risk and the rest were at low risk. Signatures of 7 immune-related lncRNAs were identified by multivariate correlation analysis. The clinical correlation analysis showed that the 7 immune-related lncRNAs were associated with the clinical stage of primary and metastatic melanoma. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that only 7 immune-related lncRNA signals divided tumor patients into high-risk and low-risk groups, while the low-risk group was enriched in the immune system process M13664 and immune response M19817 sets. PPI interaction network analysis showed that 11 G protein-coupled receptors and 6 corresponding ligands in the 2 gene sets affected the tumor microenvironment and were negatively related to the risk of the 7 immune-related lncRNAs. The tumor microenvironment immune cell infiltration analysis also supported the finding that anti-tumor immunity in the low-risk group was stronger than in the high-risk group.

Conclusions

These results indicate that characteristics of the 7 immune-related lncRNAs have prognostic value for melanoma patients and can be used as potential immunotherapy targets.

Knockdown of lncRNA SNHG14 alleviates LPS-induced inflammation and apoptosis of PC12 cells by regulating miR-181b-5p

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic central nervous system disorder that leads to permanent functional loss, and unavailable treatment of this disease results in poor quality of life. However, the specific role of long non-coding RNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 14 (lncRNA SNHG14) in SCI has not been fully studied. The aim of the current study was to investigate the role of SNHG14 and its regulatory mechanism in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced PC-12 cells. LPS was used to stimulate PC-12 cells to simulate inflammatory injury following SCI in vitro. Cell viability and apoptosis were respectively assessed by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and TUNEL assay. Western blotting was performed to detect the expressions of apoptosis-related proteins. The mRNA levels of SNHG14 and microRNA (miR)-181b-5p were detected by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. The target of SNGH14 was predicted by bioinformatics analysis and subsequently validated by a luciferase reporter assay. ELISA was then used to detect the levels of inflammatory factors. The results indicated that LPS induced inflammation, decreased cell viability and increased the apoptosis of PC-12 cells. Interference of SNHG14 alleviated this type of injury of PC-12 cells. Bioinformatics prediction and luciferase reporter assay demonstrated that miR-181b-5p could directly bind to SNHG14. Moreover, mechanistic investigations revealed that the miR-181b-5p inhibitor could reverse the inhibitory effects of SNHG14 silencing on cell viability, inflammation and apoptosis of PC-12 cells. To conclude, the present results showed that SNHG14 knockdown alleviated PC-12 cell inflammation and apoptosis induced by LPS via regulating miR-181b-5p, which might provide a novel insight into the treatment of SCI.

The Expanding Regulatory Mechanisms and Cellular Functions of Long Non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in Neuroinflammation

LncRNAs have emerged as important regulatory molecules in biological processes. They serve as regulators of gene expression pathways through interactions with proteins, RNA, and DNA. LncRNA expression is altered in several diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), such as neurodegenerative disorders, stroke, trauma, and infection. More recently, it has become clear that lncRNAs contribute to regulating both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory pathways in the CNS. In this review, we discuss the molecular pathways involved in the expression of lncRNAs, their role and mechanism of action during gene regulation, cellular functions, and use of lncRNAs as therapeutic targets during neuroinflammation in CNS disorders.

Knockdown of SNHG1 alleviates autophagy and apoptosis by regulating miR-362-3p/Jak2/stat3 pathway in LPS-injured PC12 cells

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious neurological disease. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene (SNHG1) and microRNA-362-3p (miR-362-3p) were confirmed to be related to neurological disorders. However, it is unclear whether SNHG1 was involved in the development of SCI via regulating miR-362-3p. PC12 cells were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to imitate the in vitro cell model of SCI. Cell ciability and apoptosis rate were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry assay. The levels of SNHG1, miR-362-3p, and Janus kinase-2 (Jak2) were examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA pull-down assay, and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay were performed to verify the interaction between miR-362-3p and SNHG1 or Jak2. Besides, the levels of apoptosis- and autophagy- related proteins were detected by western blot assay. In present research, LPS suppressed cell viability, and induced apoptosis and autophagy in PC12 cells. SNHG1 knockdown could affect cell viability, and suppress cell apoptosis and autophagy in LPS-treated PC12 cells. Moreover, miR-362-3p was a target of SNHG1, miR-362-3p targeted Jak2 and negatively regulated Jak2/stat3 pathway. Our data also demonstrated that SNHG1 depletion inactivated Jak2/stat3 pathway to affect cell viability and confine apoptosis, autophagy in LPS-treated PC12 cells. Taken together, SNHG1 regulated cell viability, apoptosis and autophagy in LPS-treated PC12 cells by activating Jak2/stat3 pathway via sponging miR-362-3p.

Analysis of Long Noncoding RNA ZNF667-AS1 as a Potential Biomarker for Diagnosis and Prognosis of Glioma Patients

Objective

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been strongly associated with various types of cancer. The present study aimed at exploring the diagnostic and prognostic value of lncRNA Zinc finger protein 667-antisense RNA 1 (ZNF667-AS1) in glioma patients. Patients and Methods. The expressions of ZNF667-AS1 were detected in 155 glioma tissues and matched normal brain tissue samples by qRT-PCR. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to estimate the diagnostic value of ZNF667-AS1. The association between the ZNF667-AS1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed by the chi-square test. The Kaplan-Meier method was performed to determine the influence of the ZNF667-AS1 expression on the overall survival and disease-free survival of glioma patients. The Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of independent prognostic factors on survival outcome. Cell proliferation was measured by the respective cell counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assays.

Results

We observed that ZNF667-AS1 was significantly upregulated in glioma tissues compared to normal tissue samples (p < 0.01). Higher levels of ZNF667-AS1 were positively associated with the WHO grade (p = 0.018) and KPS score (p = 0.008). ROC assays revealed that the high ZNF667-AS1 expression had an AUC value of 0.8541 (95% CI: 0.8148 to 0.8934) for glioma. Survival data revealed that glioma patients in the high ZNF667-AS1 expression group had significantly shorter 5-year overall survival (p = 0.0026) and disease-free survival (p = 0.0005) time than those in the low ZNF667-AS1 expression group. Moreover, multivariate analyses confirmed that the ZNF667-AS1 expression was an independent predictor of the overall survival and disease-free survival for glioma patients. Functionally, we found that knockdown of ZNF667-AS1 suppressed the proliferation of glioma cells.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that ZNF667-AS1 could be used as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in glioma.

LncRNA ZNF667-AS1 Promotes ABLIM1 Expression by Adsorbing micro RNA-1290 to Suppress Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cell Progression

Background

Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been elucidated to play essential roles in cancers, and the recognition of lncRNA expression patterns in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) may be helpful for indicating novel mechanisms underlying NPC carcinogenesis. Herein, we conducted this study to probe into the function of lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 in NPC progression with the involvement of microRNA-1290 (miR-1290) and actin-binding LIM protein 1 (ABLIM1).

Materials and Methods

In silico analysis screened differentially expressed genes and miRNAs in NPC and predicted potential mechanisms. ZNF667-AS1 expression was detected in NPC tissues and cells. The gain-and-loss function assays were performed to explore the effects of lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 and miR-1290 in NPC cell biological behaviors. In vivo experiments were further conducted to confirm the in vitro results.

Results

In silico analysis predicted that ZNF667-AS1 was diminished in NPC, which may downregulate ABLIM1 through sponging miR-1290. ZNF667-AS1 was poorly expressed in NPC tissues and cells, and overexpression of ZNF667-AS1 inhibited growth of NPC cells. ZNF667-AS1 competitively bound with miR-1290, thereby upregulating ABLIM1. miR-1290 resulted in the promotion of NPC cell progression by suppressing ABLIM1. Overexpression of ZNF667-AS1 or suppression of miR-1290 inhibited tumorigenicity of NPC cells in vivo.

Conclusion

This study highlights that lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 promotes ABLIM1 expression by sponging miR-1290 to suppress NPC cell progression.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells improve spinal function of spinal cord injury in rats via TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on the repair of spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats as well as the role of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/Smads signaling pathway in the repair were investigated. Rat BMSCs and astrocyte-spinal cords (ASCs) were isolated and cultured in vitro, and the cell purity was detected by flow cytometry. ASCs were co-cultured with TGF-β1, BMSCs and BMSCs + TGF-β1, respectively, and grouped accordingly, and ASCs cultured conventionally were included into control group. 3-(4,5)-Dimethylthiahiazo(-z-y1)-3,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide (MTT) assay was conducted to detect the proliferation ability of ASCs in each group. Western blotting (WB) was utilized to examine the expression of TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway-related proteins [TGF-β1, Smad2 and phosphorylated (p)-Smad2] in ASCs and ASCs co-cultured with BMSCs. A rat model of SCI was established, and BMSCs were injected locally. Then (BBB) score was used to evaluate spinal cord repair, and WB was adopted to detect the expression of TGF-β1, Smad2 and p-Smad2 at the injured site. BMSCs and ASCs isolated in vitro grew well. According to MTT assay results, TGF-β1 significantly promoted the proliferation of ASCs (P<0.05), and co-culture of ASCs and BMSCs remarkably reduced the proliferation of ASCs (P<0.05). The detection of protein expression at the SCI site via WB demonstrated that the expression of TGF-β1, Smad2 and p-Smad2 in SCI group were obviously upregulated compared with those in Sham group at 1 week (P<0.05), and the injection of BMSCs could markedly downregulate the expression (P<0.05). After 3 week, there were no significant differences in the expression of TGF-β1, Smad2 and p-Smad2 among groups (P>0.05). The transplantation of BMSCs can improve the spinal function of SCI rats probably by inhibiting the TGF-β/Smads signaling pathway and reducing the proliferation of ASCs.

Identification of Long Noncoding RNA Associated ceRNA Networks in Rosacea

Rosacea is a chronic and relapsing inflammatory cutaneous disorder with highly variable prevalence worldwide that adversely affects the health of patients and their quality of life. However, the molecular characterization of each rosacea subtype is still unclear. Furthermore, little is known about the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the pathogenesis or regulatory processes of this disorder. In the current study, we established lncRNA-mRNA coexpression networks for three rosacea subtypes (erythematotelangiectatic, papulopustular, and phymatous) and performed their functional enrichment analyses using Gene Onotology, KEGG, GSEA, and WGCNA. Compared to the control group, 13 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 525 differentially expressed mRNAs were identified in the three rosacea subtypes. The differentially expressed genes identified were enriched in four signaling pathways and the GO terms found were associated with leukocyte migration. In addition, we found nine differentially expressed lncRNAs in all three rosacea subtype-related networks, including NEAT1 and HOTAIR, which may play important roles in the pathology of rosacea. Our study provided novel insights into lncRNA-mRNA coexpression networks to discover the molecular mechanisms involved in rosacea development that can be used as future targets of rosacea diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Aberrant hypermethylation-mediated downregulation of antisense lncRNA ZNF667-AS1 and its sense gene ZNF667 correlate with progression and prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Natural antisense lncRNAs can interfere with their corresponding sense transcript to elicit concordant or discordant regulation. LncRNA ZNF667-AS1 and its sense gene ZNF667 were found to be downregulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) tissues by RNA sequencing; however, the exact roles of both genes in ESCC occurrence and development have not been clarified. This study was to investigate the expression patterns, epigenetic inactivation mechanisms, function, and prognostic significance of ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667 in ESCC tumorigenesis. Frequent downregulation of ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667 was detected in esophageal cancer cells and ESCC tissues. The expression levels of ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667 were significantly reversed by treatment with 5-Aza-dC and TSA in esophageal cancer cell lines. The CpG sites hypermethylation within proximal promoter influenced the binding ability of transcription factor E2F1 to the binding sites and then affected the transcription and expression of ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667. Overexpression of ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667 suppressed the viability, migration, and invasion of esophageal cancer cells in vitro. Overexpression of ZNF667-AS1 increased mRNA and protein expression level of ZNF667. ZNF667-AS1 interacts with and recruits TET1 to its target gene ZNF667 and E-cadherin to hydrolyze 5′-mc to 5′-hmc and further activates their expression, meanwhile, ZNF667-AS1 also interacts with UTX to decrease histone H3K27 tri-methylation to activate ZNF667 and E-cadherin expression. Furthermore, ZNF667-AS1 or ZNF667 expression and promoter methylation status were correlated with ESCC patients’ survival. Thus, these findings suggest that ZNF667-AS1 and ZNF667 may act as tumor suppressors and may serve as potential targets for antitumor therapy.

Integrative analysis of the contribution of mRNAs and long non‑coding RNAs to the pathogenesis of asthma

Asthma, a common but poorly controlled disease, is one of the most serious health problems worldwide; however, the mechanisms underlying the development of asthma remain unknown. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and mRNAs serve important roles in the initiation and progression of various diseases. The present study aimed to investigate the role of differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs associated with asthma. Differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were screened between the expression data of 62 patients with asthma and 43 healthy controls. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed to investigate the biological functions and pathways associated with the lncRNAs and mRNAs identified. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were subsequently generated. In addition, lncRNA-mRNA weighted co-expression networks were obtained. In total, 159 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 1,261 mRNAs were identified. GO and KEGG analyses revealed that differentially expressed mRNAs regulated asthma by participating in the ‘vascular endothelial (VEGF) signaling pathway’, ‘oxidative phosphorylation’, ‘Fc ε RI signaling pathway’, ‘amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism’, ‘histidine metabolism’, ‘β-alanine metabolism’ and ‘extracellular matrix-receptor interaction’ (P<0.05). Furthermore, protein kinase B 1 had the highest connectivity degree in the PPI network, and was significantly enriched in the ‘VEGF signaling pathway’ and ‘Fc ε RI signaling pathway’. A total of 8 lncRNAs in the lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network were reported to interact with 52 differentially expressed genes, which were enriched in asthma-associated GO and KEGG pathways. The results obtained in the present study may provide insight into the profile of differentially expressed lncRNAs associated with asthma. The identification of a cluster of dysregulated lncRNAs and mRNAs may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy to reverse the progression of asthma.

Long non-coding RNA Mirt2 relieves lipopolysaccharide-induced injury in PC12 cells by suppressing miR-429

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the pathogenesis of spinal cord injury (SCI). This study investigated the effects of lncRNA Mirt2 and miR-429 on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced injuries in PC12 cells. Serum samples were collected from 36 patients with SCI and the healthy controls. The expression of lncRNA Mirt2 in serum samples was measured by qRT-PCR. The in vitro model of SCI was established by treating PC12 cells with LPS. The effects of lncRNA Mirt2 and miR-429 on the cell model were evaluated by CCK-8 assay, flow cytometry, western blot, qRT-PCR, and ELISA. Further, the activation of NF-κB and p38MAPK pathways was tested by western blot. LPS induced obvious cell injuries in PC12 cells, as cell viability was reduced, apoptosis rate was increased, caspase-3 and -9 were cleaved, and the release of TNF-α and IL-6 was induced. lncRNA Mirt2 was up-regulated in LPS-stimulated PC12 cells and serum samples derived from SCI patients. Overexpression of lncRNA Mirt2 protected PC12 cells against LPS-induced injuries. Further studies found that lncRNA Mirt2 acted as the molecular sponge of miR-429 and miR-34a-5p. lncRNA Mirt2 did not protect PC12 cells when miR-429 was overexpressed. Moreover, the inhibitory effects of lncRNA Mirt2 on NF-κB and p38MAPK pathways were abolished when miR-429 was overexpressed. lncRNA Mirt2 exerts protective effects in an in vitro model of SCI by down-regulating miR-429. This study shed light on the treatment of SCI by using the lncRNA-miRNA regulation network.