Long non-coding RNA GEHT1 promoted the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells via modulating the protein stability of HIF1α.

Cancer cells preferentially metabolize glucose via the aerobic glycolysis pathway, which is also named as Warburg effect. Increasing evidence has suggested that suppression of glycolysis inhibits the progression of cancers. In the present study, we found that the long non-coding RNA gastric carcinoma high expressed transcript 1 (GHET1) was overexpressed in ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines. Up-regulation of GHET1 was positively correlated with the tumor size and metastasis of the ovarian cancer patients. Overexpression of GEHT1 significantly promoted the proliferation and colony formation of ovarian cancer cells. Mechanistically, the candidate binding partners of GHET1 were explored by pull-down and mass spectrum. Of note, GHET1 was found to interact with the E3 ubiquitin ligase von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), which consequently blocked VHL-mediated degradation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF1α) and enhanced the protein level of HIF1α in ovarian cancer cells. The up-regulated HIF1α promoted the glucose uptake and lactate generation of ovarian cancer cells. Collectively, our results suggested the oncogenic function of GHET1 via up-regulating the glycolysis in ovarian cancer and can be considered as a promising anti-cancer target.