analysis of lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA signatures related to Sorafenib effectiveness in liver cancer cells.

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common subtype of primary liver cancer with varied incidence and epidemiology worldwide. Sorafenib is still a recommended treatment for a large proportion of patients with advanced HCC. Different patterns of treatment responsiveness have been identified in differentiated hepatoblastoma HepG2 cells and metastatic HCC SNU449 cells.

AIM

To define the long non-codingRNA-microRNA-mRNA (lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA) predicted signatures related to selected hallmarks of cancer (apoptosis, autophagy, cell stress, cell dedifferentiation and invasiveness) in RNAseq studies using Sorafenib-treated HepG2 and SNU449 cells. Various available software analyses allowed us to establish the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axes following treatment in HepG2 and SNU449 cells.

METHODS

HepG2 and SNU449 cells were treated with Sorafenib (10 μmol/L) for 24 hours. Total RNA, including small and long RNA, was extracted with a commercial miRNeasy kit. RNAseq was carried out for the identification of changes in lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axes.

RESULTS

MALAT, THAP9-AS1 and SNGH17 appeared to coordinately regulate miR-374b-3p and miR-769-5p that led to upregulation of , , and in HepG2 cells. SNHG12, EPB41 L4A-AS1, LINC01578, SNHG12 and GAS5 interacted with let-7b-3p, miR-195-5p and in SNU449 cells. The axes MALAT1/hsa-mir-374b-3p/ and MALAT1/hsa-mir-769-5p/ were of high relevance for Sorafenib response in HepG2 cells, whereas /hsa-miR-195-5p/ was responsible for the differential response of SNU449 cells to Sorafenib treatment.

CONCLUSION

Critical lncRNAs acting as sponges of miRNA were identified that regulated mRNA expression, whose proteins mainly increased the antitumor effectiveness of the treatment (, , , and ). However, the broad regulatory axis leading to increased expression may be related to the side effect of Sorafenib in SNU449 cells.