Retraction Note: Upregulation of the long non-coding RNA AFAP1-AS1 affects the proliferation, invasion and survival of tongue squamous cell carcinoma via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

LincRNA PRNCR1 activates the Wnt/β-catenin pathway to drive the deterioration of hepatocellular carcinoma via regulating miR-411-3p/ZEB1 axis

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an intractable malignant disease with high incidence rate annually. LincRNA PRNCR1 has been confirmed as a tumor supporter, while its functions in HCC remain unclear. This study aims to explore the mechanism of LincRNA PRNCR1 in hepatocellular carcinoma. The qRT-PCR was applied to the quantification of non-coding RNAs. Cell counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), Transwell assay and flow cytometry assay were applied to reflect the change in the phenotype of HCC cells. Moreover, the databases including Targetscan and Starbase and dual-luciferase reporter assay were applied to investigate the interaction of the genes. The western blot was applied to detect the abundance of proteins and the activity of the related pathways. Elevated LincRNA PRNCR1 was dramatically upregulated in HCC pathological samples and cell lines. MiR-411-3p served as a target of LincRNA PRNCR1, and decreased miR-411-3p was found in the clinical samples and cell lines. LincRNA PRNCR1 downregulation could induce the expression of miR-411-3p, and LincRNA PRNCR1 silence could impede the malignant behaviors via increasing the abundance of miR-411-3p. Zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) was confirmed as a target of miR-411-3p, which remarkably upregulated in HCC cells, and ZEB1 upregulation could significantly rescue the effect of miR-411-3p on malignant behaviors of HCC cells. Moreover, LincRNA PRNCR1 was confirmed to involve the Wnt/β-catenin pathway via regulating miR-411-3p/ZEB1 axis. This study suggested that LincRNA PRNCR1 could drive the malignant progression of HCC via regulating miR-411-3p/ZEB1 axis.

Pan-cancer analysis of necroptosis-related gene signature for the identification of prognosis and immune significance

BACKGROUND

Necroptosis is a novel programmed cell death mode independent on caspase. A number of studies have revealed that the induction of necroptosis could act as an alternative therapeutic strategy for drug-resistant tumors as well as affect tumor immune microenvironment.

METHODS

Gene expression profiles and clinical data were downloaded from XENA-UCSC (including The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression), Gene Expression Omnibus, International Cancer Genome Consortium and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas. We used non-negative matrix factorization method to conduct tumor classification. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression was applied to establish risk models, whose prognostic effectiveness was examined in both training and testing sets with Kaplan-Meier analysis, time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves as well as uni- and multi-variate survival analysis. Principal Component Analysis, t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection were conducted to check the risk group distribution. Gene Set Enrichment Analyses, immune infiltration analysis based on CIBERSORT, EPIC, MCPcounter, ssGSEA and ESTIMATE, gene mutation and drug sensitivity between the risk groups were also taken into consideration.

RESULTS

There were eight types of cancer with at least ten differentially expressed necroptosis-related genes which could influence patients' prognosis, namely, adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (CESC), acute myeloid leukemia (LAML), brain lower grade glioma (LGG), pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD), liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), skin cutaneous melanoma (SKCM) and thymoma (THYM). Patients could be divided into different clusters with distinct overall survival in all cancers above except for LIHC. The risk models could efficiently predict prognosis of ACC, LAML, LGG, LIHC, SKCM and THYM patients. LGG patients from high-risk group had a higher infiltration level of M2 macrophages and cancer-associated fibroblasts. There were more CD8+ T cells, Th1 cells and M1 macrophages in low-risk SKCM patients' tumor microenvironment. Gene mutation status and drug sensitivity are also different between low- and high-risk groups in the six cancers.

CONCLUSIONS

Necroptosis-related genes can predict clinical outcomes of ACC, LAML, LGG, LIHC, SKCM and THYM patients and help to distinguish immune infiltration status for LGG and SKCM.

Comprehensive Characterization of Metabolism-Associated Subtypes of Renal Cell Carcinoma to Aid Clinical Therapy

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a disease characterized by excessive administration complexity because it exhibits extraordinary nonuniformity among distinct molecular subtypes. We herein intended to delineate the metabolic aspects of clear cell RCC (ccRCC) in terms of the gene expression profile. Recent studies have revealed that metabolic variations within tumors are related to the responsiveness to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy and patient prognosis. We used 100 previously reported metabolic (MTB) pathways to quantify the metabolic landscape of the 729 ccRCC patients. Three MTB subtypes were established, and the MTB scores were calculated using principal component analysis (PCA). The high MTB score group had better overall survival (OS) and was associated with higher expression of immune-checkpoint and immune-activity signatures. The opposite was true of the low MTB score group, which may explain the poor prognosis of these patients. Three ICI-treated cohorts or tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treated cohort proved that patients with higher MTB scores exhibited notable therapeutic benefits and clinical gains. This research explained that the MTB score could be applied as a powerful prognostic indicator and predictive of ICI or TKI therapy. Assessing the MTB scores in a more extended group will facilitate our perception of tumor metabolism and provide guidance for studies on targeted approaches for ccRCC patients.

H3K27ac-induced FOXC2-AS1 accelerates tongue squamous cell carcinoma by upregulating E2F3

BACKGROUND

The important roles of lncRNAs have been reported in cancers, including tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). Here, we investigated the functional role and molecular mechanisms of lncRNA FOXC2-AS1 in TSCC.

METHODS

The expression level of FOXC2-AS1 in TSCC was determined by RT-qPCR. Its biological role was evaluated through colony formation assay, flow cytometry, wound healing, transwell, and Western blot analyses. The interactions among gene were tested by mechanistic investigations.

RESULTS

FOXC2-AS1 expression was high in TSCC tissues and cells. Functional assays in vitro showed that silencing FOXC2-AS1 restrained cell proliferation, cell cycle, migration, invasion, and EMT. In the mechanism, it was verified that H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) triggered an increase in FOXC2-AS1 expression. Furthermore, FOXC2-AS1 was identified as a cytoplasmic lncRNA and served as a ceRNA to upregulate E2F3 expression via sponging miR-6868-5p.

CONCLUSION

H3K27ac-induced FOXC2-AS1 exhibits carcinogenic property in TSCC by the miR-6868-5p/E2F3 axis.

Long non-coding RNA AFAP1-AS1 promotes cell growth and inhibits apoptosis by binding to specific proteins in germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Germinal center B-cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (GCB-DLBCL) is a common subtype of lymphoma in adults. Previously, we found that actin filament-associated protein 1-antisense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1) is among the most overexpressed lncRNAs in GCB-DLBCL. In this study, we explored its biological functions and molecular mechanisms in the progression of GCB-DLBCL. We discovered, via bioinformatics, that patients with a high expression of AFAP1-AS1 had significantly poor disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Subsequent assays demonstrated that AFAP1-AS1 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and prompted arrest of the G0/G1 cell cycle and apoptosis in GCB-DLBCL cell lines. Proteomics analysis indicated that hundreds of proteins were deregulated after AFAP1-AS1 knockdown and KEGG pathway analysis revealed that the deregulated proteins belonged to multiple signaling pathways, such as "B-cell receptor signaling pathway". Moreover, in the comprehensive identification of proteins that bind to RNA (by ChIRP-MS), several proteins associated with RNA splicing were identified (e.g., SFPQ, NONO, SRSF2, SRSF6, and KHSRP) that could specifically bind to AFAP1-AS1, which was confirmed by parallel reaction monitoring assay (PRM). Conclusively, we demonstrated that AFAP1-AS1 is a possible prognostic marker of poor outcomes in GCB-DLBCL patients and could modulate gene expression through connecting to specific proteins to practice its oncogenic role in GCB-DLBCL.

Exosomal lncRNA HEIH promotes cisplatin resistance in tongue squamous cell carcinoma via targeting miR-3619-5p/HDGF axis

BACKGROUND

Accumulating evidence has suggested that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the progression of types of human cancers. It has been known that exosomes can mediate cell-cell crosstalk by transferring lncRNAs in tumor progression. This study aimed to investigate the role of exosomal lncRNA HEIH on cisplatin (DDP) resistance in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC).

METHODS

The expression of HEIH in human oral keratinocytes cell line (HOK), DDP-sensitive TSCC cell line (SCC4/S) and DDP-resistant TSCC cell line (SCC4/DDP) was measured. SCC4/S and SCC4/DDP cells were transfected with sh-HEIH to examine TSCC cell proliferation and apoptosis. The DDP-resistant exosomes were extracted and identified. The expression of miR‑3619-5p and TDGF in DDP-sensitive recipient cells was determined. The binding capacity between HEIH and miR‑3619-5p, along with miR‑3619-5p and TDGF was verified.

RESULTS

HEIH expression was significantly upregulated in SCC4/DDP cells. Downregulation of HEIH inhibited DDP resistance and cell proliferation and promoted cell apoptosis. HEIH acted as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for miR‑3619-5p to upregulate HDGF expression. Exosomal HEIH promoted cell proliferation and drug resistance and inhibited cell apoptosis by sponging miR‑3169-5p and upregulating HDGF.

CONCLUSION

Exosomal HEIH acted as a ceRNA for miR‑3619-5p to upregulate HDGF, thereby promoting DDP resistance in TSCC cells.

Overexpression of antisense long non‑coding RNA ZNF710‑AS1‑202 promotes cell proliferation and inhibits apoptosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma via regulation of ZNF710 expression

Antisense long non-coding RNAs (AS lncRNAs) have been increasingly recognized as important regulators of gene expression and have been found to play crucial roles in the development and progression of tumors. The present study explored the roles of AS lncRNA ZNF710-AS1-202 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). The expression levels of ZNF710-AS1-202 were detected in 46 human ccRCC tissues and 34 healthy adjacent renal tissues. The associations between the levels of ZNF710-AS1-202 expression and the clinicopathological features of the patients were evaluated by the χ² test. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments were performed to analyze the role of ZNF710-AS1-202 in ccRCC cell proliferation and survival in vitro. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and/or western blotting were employed to detect ZNF710-AS1-202, zinc finger protein 710 (ZNF710) and cyclin B1 expression. The Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony formation assays, as well as flow cytometry, were used to detect cell proliferation or apoptosis. The subcellular localization of ZNF710-AS1-202 was analyzed by RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization. The results revealed that ZNF710-AS1-202 was downregulated in human ccRCC tissues and was associated with the pathological grade, tumor size, local invasion and TNM stage, but not with lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis. However, ZNF710-AS1-202 overexpression promoted the proliferation of RCC cells and inhibited apoptosis. Opposite results were observed when ZNF710-AS1-202 was knocked down by small interfering RNA. Furthermore, ZNF710-AS1-202, which was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of RCC cells, regulated ZNF710 mRNA and protein expression in opposing manners. In conclusion, the present study revealed that ZNF710-AS1-202 and ZNF710 may serve as promising therapeutic targets for ccRCC.