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Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as key regulators in various biological processes. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental process hijacked by tumor cells to depart from the primary tumor site, invade surrounding tissue, and establish distant metastases. Transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) signaling has been shown to be a major inducer of EMT and to facilitate breast cancer metastasis. However, the role of lncRNAs in this process remains largely unknown. Here we report a genome-wide lncRNA profile in mouse mammary epithelial NMuMG cells upon TGFβ induction of EMT. Among 10,802 lncRNAs profiled, over 600 were up-regulated and down-regulated during the EMT, respectively. Furthermore, we identify that lncRNA-HIT (HOXA transcript induced by TGFβ) mediates TGFβ function, i.e. depletion of lncRNA-HIT inhibits TGFβ-induced migration, invasion, and EMT in NMuMG. LncRNA-HIT is also significantly elevated in the highly metastatic 4T1 cells. Knockdown of lncRNA-HIT in 4T1 results in decrease of cell migration, invasion, tumor growth, and metastasis. E-cadherin was identified as a major target of lncRNA-HIT. Moreover, lncRNA-HIT is conserved in humans and elevated expression associates with more invasive human primary breast carcinoma. Collectively, these data suggest that a subset of lncRNAs such as lncRNA-HIT play a significant role in regulation of EMT and breast cancer invasion and metastasis, and could be potential therapeutic targets in breast cancers.

Background The human CDH4 gene, which encodes the R-cadherin protein, has an important role in cell migration and cell adhesion, sorting, tissue morphogenesis, and tumor genesis. This study analyzed the relationship of CDH4 mRNA expression with lung cancer. Methods Real time PCR was applied to detect CDH4 mRNA transcription in 142 paired cases of lung cancer and noncancerous regions. Results No correlation was identified between CDH4 mRNA expression and gender, age, lymphnode metastasis, TNM stage, family history, smoking state, drinking state (P > 0.05), but grade and histotype (P

Purpose: Genetic polymorphisms of ribonucleotidereductase M1 ( RRM1 ) was a DNA repair gene, which may affect patients' response to platinum-based chemotherapy or gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. We retrospectively assessed whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of RRM1 can be used to predict overall survival (OS), progression free survival and response in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with platinum-based regimens as first-line chemotherapy. Subjects and Methods: The genotypes of four tagSNPs ( RRM1 -316C > A, RRM1 -269C > A, RRM1 -702G > A and RRM1 -585T > G) were determined by SNaPshot detection technology and sequencing approaches in 184 advanced NSCLC patients by using peripheral blood. Results: The overall response rate for 178 patients was 40.2% and the disease control rate was 90.2%. In patients who had ever smoked, a significant correlation was observed between the genotype of RRM1 -269C > A and response ( P = 0.046). There was a significant difference in response according to the genotype of RRM1 -702G > A (P = 0.043). Using Log-rank test, we found that patients with the allelotype (CC) of RRM1 -269C > A had a shorter OS ( P = 0.006) than the allelotype (CA + AA). Conclusion: The genotype of RRM1 -269C > A was significantly associated with platinum-based chemotherapy sensitivity in smoking patients and can be used to predict OS in advanced NSCLC patients who received platinum-based chemotherapy or gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. And the genotype of RRM1 -702G > A can serve as a biomarker for chemotherapy sensitivity in advanced NSCLC patients.

Topoisomerase 2α (Topo2A) is a key enzyme in replication. It functions as a cell proliferation and cell cycle-specific marker and it is identified mainly in the interphase nuclei of proliferating cells. Many studies have shown that Topo2A protein expression is up-regulated in various cancers including esophageal cancer. However, to date, no studies have adequately addressed the prognostic value of Topo2A in patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Therefore, we conducted a large-scale retrospective study investigating the expression of Topo2A and the clinicopathological characteristics or prognosis of ESCC patients. Eight hundred and twenty-nine specimens of ESCC from patients who underwent complete esophageal cancer resection were evaluated using an immunohistochemical assay. Among them, 404 (48.7 %) cases with a score >2 were determined to be positive for Topo2A expression. Topo2A overexpression was significantly associated with poorer differentiation (P = 0.007) and perineural invasion (P = 0.046). The median progression-free survival (PFS) of 319 patients with Topo2A-positive expression and 336 patients with Topo2A-negative expression was 19.5 and 26.5 months, respectively (P = 0.000). The overall survival (OS) in patients with and without Topo2A expression was 34.0 and 44.5 months, respectively (P = 0.002). In the multivariate analysis, Topo2A overexpression was identified as an independent prognostic factor for PFS (P = 0.001) and OS (P = 0.009). We determined that Topo2A overexpression was not only associated with poorer differentiation and perineural invasion, but it could also act as an independent risk factor for ESCC.

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as key regulators in various biological processes. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental process hijacked by tumor cells to depart from the primary tumor site, invade surrounding tissue, and establish distant metastases. TGFβ signaling has been shown to be a major inducer of EMT and to facilitate breast cancer metastasis. However, the role of lncRNAs in this process remains largely unknown. Methods: Genome-wide lncRNA profile was performed using NCode™ Mouse Noncoding Microarray chip from Life Technologies, which contains 10,802 lncRNAs and 25,178 protein-coding genes. Total RNA was isolated from mouse mammary epithelial NMuMG cells, which had been treated with TGFβ for 0, 12 and 24 hours, and was used to hybridize the microarray. The role of a top TGFβ-upregulated lncRNA, lncRNA-HIT, in EMT and metastasis was further characterized in cell culture and orthotopic breast cancer models Results: Among 10,802 lnRNAs profiled, 680 were up-regulated and 633 were down-regulated during TGFβ-induced EMT, respectively. Further, we identify that lncRNA-HIT (HOXA antisense transcript induced by TGFβ) mediates TGFβ function, i.e., depletion of lncRNA-HIT inhibits TGFβ-induced migration, invasion, and EMT in NMuMG. LncRNA-HIT is also significantly elevated in the highly metastatic 4T1 cells. Knockdown of lncRNA-HIT in 4T1 results in decrease of cell migration, invasion, tumor growth and metastasis. Moreover, lncRNA-HIT is conserved in humans and elevated expression associates with more invasive human primary breast carcinoma. Conclusions: These data suggest that a subset of lncRNAs such as lncRNA-HIT play a significant role in regulation of EMT and breast cancer invasion and metastasis, and could be potential therapeutic targets in breast cancers. Citation Format: Edward Richards, Gu Zhang, Jennifer Permuth-Wey, Zhu-Peng Li, Sridevi Challa, William Kong, Dan Su, Domenico Coppola, Wei-min Mao, Thomas Sellers, Jin Q. Cheng. Identification of TGFβ-regulated long noncoding RNAs in mammary epithelia: lncRNA-HIT mediated TGFβ-induced EMT and breast cancer metastasis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 154. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-154