ABSTRACT
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in kinds of human diseases, including colorectal cancer (CRC). TINCR, a 3.7 kb long non coding RNA, was associated with cell differentiation in keratinocyte and gastric cancer cells. However, little is known about the role of TINCR in regulation CRC progression. Here, we showed that lncRNA TINCR was associated with CRC proliferation and metastasis. TINCR was statistically downregulated in CRC tissues and metastatic CRC cell lines compared with their counterparts. TINCR was reversely correlated with CRC progression and promoted tumor cells growth, metastasis in vivo and in vitro. While overexpression of TINCR had opposite effect. In addition, we also found that TINCR specifically bound to EpCAM through RNA IP and RNA pull down assays. Loss of TINCR promoted hydrolysis of EpCAM and then released EpICD, subsequently, activated the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. Further studies shown that c-Myc repressed the expression of TINCR through repressing sp1 transcriptive activity, which established a positive feedback loop controlling c-Myc and TINCR expression. These findings elucidate that loss of TINCR expression promotes proliferation and metastasis in CRC and it could be considered as a potential cancer suppressor gene.
Subject(s)
Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology , Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule/metabolism , RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism , Animals , Cell Proliferation/physiology , Colorectal Neoplasms/metabolism , HCT116 Cells , Heterografts , Humans , Mice , Mice, Nude , Neoplasm Invasiveness/pathologyABSTRACT
microRNAs (miRNAs) cause mRNA degradation or translation suppression of their target genes. Previous studies have found direct involvement of miRNAs in cancer initiation and progression. Artificial miRNAs, designed to target single or multiple genes of interest, provide a new therapeutic strategy for cancer. This study investigates the anti-tumor effect of a novel artificial miRNA, miR P-27-5p, on breast cancer. In this study, we reveal that miR P-27-5p downregulates the differential gene expressions associated with the protein modification process and regulation of cell cycle in T-47D cells. Introduction of this novel artificial miRNA, miR P-27-5p, into breast cell lines inhibits cell proliferation and induces the first "gap" phase (G1) cell cycle arrest in cancer cell lines but does not affect normal breast cells. We further show that miR P-27-5p targets the 3'-untranslated mRNA region (3'-UTR) of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) and reduces both the mRNA and protein level of CDK4, which in turn, interferes with phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein (RB1). Overall, our data suggest that the effects of miR p-27-5p on cell proliferation and G1 cell cycle arrest are through the downregulation of CDK4 and the suppression of RB1 phosphorylation. This study opens avenues for future therapies targeting breast cancer.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/drug therapy , Breast Neoplasms/genetics , Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/genetics , Down-Regulation/drug effects , MicroRNAs/pharmacology , Retinoblastoma Protein/metabolism , 3' Untranslated Regions , Breast Neoplasms/metabolism , Cell Line, Tumor , Cell Proliferation , Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/metabolism , Female , G1 Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Humans , MCF-7 Cells , PhosphorylationABSTRACT
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in posttranscriptional regulation of genes. We developed a method to predict human miRNAs without requiring cross-species conservation. We first identified lowly/moderately expressed tissue-selective genes using EST data and then identified overrepresented motifs of seven nucleotides in the 3' UTRs of these genes. Using these motifs as potential target sites of miRNAs, we recovered more than two-thirds of the known human miRNAs. We then used those motifs that did not match any known human miRNA seed region to infer novel miRNAs. We predicted 36 new human miRNA genes with 44 mature forms and 4 novel alternative mature forms of 2 known miRNA genes when a stringent criterion was used and many more novel miRNAs when a less stringent criterion was used. We tested the expression of 11 predicted miRNAs in three human cell lines and found 5 of them expressed in all three cell lines and 1 expressed in one cell line. We selected 2 of them, P-2 and P-27-5p, to do functional validation, using their mimics and inhibitors and using both luciferase assay and Western blotting. These experiments provided strong evidence that both P-2 and P-27-5p are novel miRNAs and that CREB3L3, which encodes cAMP-responsive element binding protein 3-like 3, is a target gene of P-2, whereas LAMB3, which encodes laminin beta3, is a target gene of P-27-5p.
