Department of Neurosurgery, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, P.R. China.
Brian Science Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, P.R. China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 12;7(1):17456. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-17340-y.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play critical roles in cancer. lncTCF7 (gene symbol: WSPAR) has been reported to maintain stemness in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) stem cells. However, little is known about the role of lncTCF7 in glioma. The aim of this study was to identify the role of lncTCF7 in the pathogenesis of glioma. We analysed the relationship of lncTCF7 expression with clinicopathological characteristics in glioma patients. Our results showed that lncTCF7 expression was increased in glioma tissues compared with that in normal brain tissues (P < 0.001). Moreover, lncTCF7 was significantly associated with WHO grade (I-II vs. III-IV; P = 0.006) and tumour size (<3 cm vs. T ≥ 3 cm; P = 0.025). Meanwhile, patients with high lncTCF7 expression levels exhibited markedly worse overall survival prognoses (P < 0.01). Loss of function assays revealed that knockdown of lncTCF7 significantly inhibited glioma cell migration, proliferation and tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we found that hypoxia induced lncTCF7 expression in an autocrine manner through IL-6 in glioma. In conclusion, lncTCF7 may play a vital role in glioma progression and serves as a potential prognostic biomarker in glioma patients, providing new targets for glioma therapy.
长链非编码 RNA(lncRNA)已被证明在癌症中发挥关键作用。lncTCF7(基因符号:WSPAR)已被报道在肝癌干细胞中维持干细胞特性。然而,lncTCF7 在神经胶质瘤中的作用知之甚少。本研究旨在确定 lncTCF7 在神经胶质瘤发病机制中的作用。我们分析了 lncTCF7 表达与神经胶质瘤患者临床病理特征的关系。结果表明,lncTCF7 在神经胶质瘤组织中的表达高于正常脑组织(P<0.001)。此外,lncTCF7 与 WHO 分级(I-II 级与 III-IV 级;P=0.006)和肿瘤大小(<3cm 与 T≥3cm;P=0.025)显著相关。同时,lncTCF7 高表达水平的患者总生存预后明显较差(P<0.01)。功能丧失实验表明,lncTCF7 敲低显著抑制了体外和体内神经胶质瘤细胞的迁移、增殖和致瘤性。此外,我们发现缺氧通过 IL-6 以自分泌方式诱导神经胶质瘤中 lncTCF7 的表达。总之,lncTCF7 可能在神经胶质瘤的进展中发挥重要作用,并可作为神经胶质瘤患者的潜在预后生物标志物,为神经胶质瘤的治疗提供新的靶点。