Long non-coding RNA LINC00672 contributes to p53 protein-mediated gene suppression and promotes endometrial cancer chemosensitivity.

Thousands of long intergenic non-protein coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified in mammals in genome-wide sequencing studies. Some of these RNAs have been consistently conserved during the evolution of species and could presumably function in important biologic processes. Therefore, we measured the levels of 26 highly conserved lincRNAs in a total of 176 pairs of endometrial carcinoma (EC) and surrounding non-tumor tissues of two distinct Chinese populations. Here, we report that a lincRNA, , which possesses an ultra-conserved region, is aberrantly down-regulated during the development of EC. Nevertheless, is a p53-targeting lincRNA acting along with heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins as a suppressive cofactor, which locally reinforces p53-mediated suppression of , an evolutionarily conserved neighboring gene of and putatively associated with increased tumor aggressiveness, during anti-tumor processes. overexpression could lower the levels of and slow the development of malignant phenotypes of EC both and Moreover, significantly increased the 50% inhibitory concentration of paclitaxel in EC cells and increased the sensitivity of xenograft mice to paclitaxel. These findings indicate that can influence expression as a locus-restricted cofactor for p53-mediated gene suppression, thus impacting EC malignancies and chemosensitivity to paclitaxel.