School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Biotechnology Center, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710000, China.
ACS Nano. 2023 Nov 28;17(22):22240-22258. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c01199. Epub 2023 Nov 15.
Sorafenib, a first-line molecular-target drug for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), has been shown to be a potent ferroptosis inducer in HCC. However, we found that there was a lower level of ferroptosis in sorafenib-resistant HCC samples than in sorafenib-sensitive HCC samples, suggesting that sorafenib resistance in HCC may be a result of ferroptosis suppression. Recent reports have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in programmed cell death (PCD), including apoptosis and ferroptosis. This study aimed to investigate the roles and underlying molecular mechanisms of lncRNAs in sorafenib-induced ferroptosis in HCC cells. Using lncRNA sequencing, we identified a ferroptosis-related lncRNA, URB1-antisense RNA 1 (AS1), which was highly expressed in sorafenib-resistant HCC samples and predicted poor survival in HCC. Furthermore, URB1-AS1 mitigates sorafenib-induced ferroptosis by inducing ferritin phase separation and reducing the cellular free iron content. Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α was identified as a key factor promoting URB1-AS1 expression in sorafenib-resistant HCC cells. Notably, we found that specifically inhibiting the expression of URB1-AS1 with -acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-small interfering (si)URB1-AS1 successfully enhanced the sensitivity of HCC cells to sorafenib in an tumor model. Our study uncovered a critical role for URB1-AS1 in the repression of ferroptosis, suggesting URB1-AS1 targeting may represent a potential approach to overcome sorafenib resistance in HCC.
索拉非尼是一种用于晚期肝细胞癌(HCC)的一线分子靶向药物,已被证明是 HCC 中有效的铁死亡诱导剂。然而,我们发现索拉非尼耐药 HCC 样本中的铁死亡水平低于索拉非尼敏感 HCC 样本,表明 HCC 中的索拉非尼耐药可能是铁死亡抑制的结果。最近的报告表明,长链非编码 RNA(lncRNA)参与程序性细胞死亡(PCD),包括细胞凋亡和铁死亡。本研究旨在探讨 lncRNA 在 HCC 细胞中索拉非尼诱导的铁死亡中的作用及其潜在的分子机制。通过 lncRNA 测序,我们鉴定出一个与铁死亡相关的 lncRNA,URB1-反义 RNA 1(AS1),其在索拉非尼耐药 HCC 样本中高表达,预测 HCC 患者预后不良。此外,URB1-AS1 通过诱导铁蛋白相分离和降低细胞游离铁含量来减轻索拉非尼诱导的铁死亡。缺氧诱导因子(HIF)-1α被鉴定为促进索拉非尼耐药 HCC 细胞中 URB1-AS1 表达的关键因素。值得注意的是,我们发现用 N-乙酰半乳糖胺(GalNAc)-小干扰(si)URB1-AS1 特异性抑制 URB1-AS1 的表达,成功地增强了 HCC 细胞对索拉非尼的敏感性在肿瘤模型中。我们的研究揭示了 URB1-AS1 在抑制铁死亡中的关键作用,表明靶向 URB1-AS1 可能是克服 HCC 中索拉非尼耐药的一种潜在方法。
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