Qin Xiaohui, Wang Shunxiang
Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
Department of General Surgery, Handan First Hospital, Handan, China.
J Gastrointest Oncol. 2023 Jun 30;14(3):1451-1461. doi: 10.21037/jgo-23-327. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common tumor with severe morbidity and high mortality. The lncRNA ASAP1-IT1 [the intronic transcript 1 (IT-1) of ArfGAP with SH3 domain, ankyrin repeat and PH domain 1 (ASAP1)] have been shown to promote tumor formation in a variety of cancers. This study sought to investigate the effects of dysregulated ASAP1-IT1 on the biological processes of HCC.
The expression levels of ASAP1-IT1 in 30 paired HCC and adjacent non-tumor tissues were measured by real-time-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Several functional tests were performed to investigate the molecular mechanism of ASAP1-IT1 in HCC progression.
Our study showed that ASAP1-IT1 was highly expressed in the HCC tissues and cell lines. The knockdown of ASAP1-IT1 inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progression and enhanced the sorafenib sensitivity of the HCC cells. Further investigations revealed that ASAP1-IT1 served as a sponge of microRNA-1294 (miR-1294) to promote transforming growth factor beta receptor 1 (TGFBR1) expression. In addition, the tumor-promoting effect of ASAP1-IT1 was blocked by inhibiting miR-1294/TGFBR1. Tumorigenic assays in nude mice demonstrated that the inhibition of ASAP1-IT1 inhibited the growth of HCC .
These results suggest that lncASAP1-IT1 promotes HCC development by targeting TGFBR1 through miR-1294, which provides a potential target for HCC diagnosis and treatment.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是最常见的肿瘤,发病率高且死亡率高。长链非编码RNA ASAP1-IT1[含SH3结构域、锚蛋白重复序列和PH结构域的ArfGAP 1(ASAP1)的内含子转录本1(IT-1)]已被证明在多种癌症中促进肿瘤形成。本研究旨在探讨ASAP1-IT1失调对HCC生物学过程的影响。
采用实时定量聚合酶链反应(RT-qPCR)检测30对HCC及癌旁非肿瘤组织中ASAP1-IT1的表达水平。进行了多项功能测试以研究ASAP1-IT1在HCC进展中的分子机制。
我们的研究表明,ASAP1-IT1在HCC组织和细胞系中高表达。敲低ASAP1-IT1可抑制细胞增殖、迁移、侵袭和上皮-间质转化(EMT)进程,并增强HCC细胞对索拉非尼的敏感性。进一步研究表明,ASAP1-IT1作为微小RNA-1294(miR-1294)的海绵,促进转化生长因子β受体1(TGFBR1)的表达。此外,抑制miR-1294/TGFBR1可阻断ASAP1-IT1的促肿瘤作用。裸鼠致瘤试验表明,抑制ASAP1-IT1可抑制HCC的生长。
这些结果表明,lncASAP1-IT1通过miR-1294靶向TGFBR1促进HCC发展,这为HCC的诊断和治疗提供了一个潜在靶点。