Expression and functions of long non-coding RNA actin filament-associated protein 1-antisense RNA1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma / 华西口腔医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the expression and clinical significance of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) actin filament-associated protein 1-antisense RNA1 (AFAP1-AS1) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and its effect on the biobehavior of OSCC cells.@*METHODS@#Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 in the tumor tissue and matching adjacent normal tissue of OSCC patients (n=55), SCC25 cells, and normal oral keratinocyte lines (NOK) cells. The correlation between AFAP1-AS1 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC patients was analyzed. The relationship between AFAP1-AS1 and prognosis was also studied with the Kaplan-Meier method. AFAP1-AS1 siRNA was transfected into the SCC25 cells. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and Trans-well were used to detect cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. The expression of the invasion-associated protein, AFAP1, and Rho GTPase family members, was detected by Western blot. In addition, the immunofluorescence of the cytoskeletal actin filament was observed.@*RESULTS@#The expression of AFAP1-AS1 was higher in the OSCC tissues than in the NOK cells, and the relative expression of AFAP1-AS1 was higher in the SCC25 cells than in the NOK cells (P<0.001). AFAP1-AS1 expression was associated with the degree of diffe-rentiation, TNM stage, lymphatic metastasis, and poor prognosis of OSCC (P<0.05). Patients with a high expression of AFAP1-AS1 had lower survival rates than those with a low expression of AFAP1-AS1 (P<0.05). After transfected by AFAP1-AS1 siRNA, the expression of AFAP1-AS1 was downregulated. The inhibition of AFAP1-AS1 expression consequently suppressed the proliferation, invasion, and migration of SCC25. Moreover, AFAP1-AS1 siRNA upregulated the expression levels of AFAP1, RhoA, Rac2, Rab10, RhoGDI, and Pfn1 but downregulated the expression of RhoC. Immunofluorescence showed that AFAP1-AS1 also reduced the formation of stress filaments in the cytoskeleton and affected the integrity of the actin fila-ment.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The expression of AFAP1-AS1 was high in the OSCC tissues and SCC25 cells and is associated with the development and prognosis of OSCC. The knockdown of AFAP1-AS1 might inhibit the proliferation and invasion of OSCC cells by regulating the integrity of the actin filament.

Expression of long non-coding RNA AFAP1-AS1 in human digestive system cancer and its clinical significance / 肿瘤

Objective: To investigate the expressions of actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1), a long non-coding RNA (IncRNA) in four common human digestive system cancers including esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer and colorectal cancer, and their clinical significance. Methods: The expression of AFAP1-AS1 was preliminarily detected in several digestive system tumor tissues and their corresponding adjacent normal tissues from 82 cases by multi-tumor tissue microarrays. These 82 patients included 11 with esophageal cancer, 11 with gastric cancer, 26 with liver cancer, and 34 with colorectal cancer. The expression of AFAP1-AS1 which had significant difference in liver tumor tissues was further tested by in situ hybridization (additional 70 cases) and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (additional 30 cases). The relationship between the expression of AFAP1-AS1 and the clinicopathological features was analyzed. The role of AFAP1-AS1 in tumor lymph node metastasis was assessed. Results: The expression of AFAP1-AS1 in liver cancer was significantly lower than that in its corresponding adjacent normal liver tissue (P 0.05). Further test also revealed that the expression of AFAP1-AS1 was significantly down-regulated in liver cancer, and this effect was associated with clinical stage and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, coincidence rate, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of AFAP1-AS1 serving as a molecular marker of metastasis were 68.75%, 65.00%, 65.63%, 28.21% and 91.23%, respectively. Conclusion: The expression of AFAP1-AS1 may play a role in the pathogenesis and progression of liver cancer and esophageal cancer, but this effect is different between these two cancer types. It is suggested that AFAP1-AS1 may become a noval molecular marker for clinical diagnosis of liver cancer. Copyright© 2014 by TUMOR.