1. Hypoxia-induced lncRNA EIF3J-AS1 accelerates hepatocellular carcinoma progression via targeting miR-122-5p/CTNND2 axis.
- Author
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Yang X, Yao B, Niu Y, Chen T, Mo H, Wang L, Guo C, and Yao D
- Subjects
- Carcinoma, Hepatocellular pathology, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Movement, Cell Proliferation, Disease Progression, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Humans, Liver Neoplasms pathology, Tumor Hypoxia, Delta Catenin, Carcinoma, Hepatocellular genetics, Catenins genetics, Liver Neoplasms genetics, MicroRNAs genetics, RNA, Long Noncoding genetics
- Abstract
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) exert crucial roles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression. LncRNA EIF3J-AS1 is recently reported to be highly expressed in HCC and correlates with recurrence-free survival. However, the biological function of EIF3J-AS1 and its underlying molecular mechanism are unexplored yet. In the current study, we demonstrated that EIF3J-AS1 expression was obviously upregulated in HCC tissues compared to adjacent noncancerous tissues. Moreover, the elevated levels of EIF3J-AS1 was detected in four HCC cell lines (HepG2, SMMC-7721, MHCC97H, HCCLM3) compared with the normal hepatic cell line LO2. Notably, the expression of EIF3J-AS1 was correlated with prognostic features including tumor size, vascular invasion and tumor stage. TCGA-LIHC data indicated that the upregulated expression of EIF3J-AS1 predicted poor prognosis of HCC. EIF3J-AS1 knockdown remarkably suppressed the proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. Mechanistically, EIF3J-AS1 inversely regulated miR-122-5p expression via acting as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) in HCC cells. Furthermore, catenin delta 2 (CTNND2) was recognized as a novel target of miR-122-5p. CTNND2 restoration partially reversed EIF3J-AS1 knockdown-induced inhibitory effects on HCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Importantly, we found that hypoxia induced EIF3J-AS1 and CTNND2 expression, and led to miR-122-5p downregulation in HCC cells. EIF3J-AS1 knockdown partially abolished hypoxia-induced HCC cell proliferation and mobility. In conclusion, our results provide a new insight into the molecular pathogenesis of HCC, and EIF3J-AS1 may be a potential therapeutic target for HCC., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2019
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