LINC01106 Post-Transcriptionally Regulates ELK3 and HOXD8 to Promote Bladder Cancer Progression Liwei Meng1,Zhaoquanxing1, Zhaoxin Guo1 and Zhaoxu Liu1
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Meng et al. Cell Death and Disease (2020) 11:1063 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41419-020-03236-9 Cell Death & Disease ARTICLE Open Access LINC01106 post-transcriptionally regulates ELK3 and HOXD8 to promote bladder cancer progression Liwei Meng1,ZhaoquanXing1, Zhaoxin Guo1 and Zhaoxu Liu1 Abstract Bladder cancer (BCa) is a kind of common urogenital malignancy worldwide. Emerging evidence indicated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in the progression of BCa. In this study, we discovered a novel lncRNA LINC01116 whose expression increased with stages in BCa patients and closely related to the survival rate of BCa patients. However, the molecular mechanism dictating the role of LINC01116 in BCa has not been well elucidated so far. In our study, we detected that the expression of LINC01116 was boosted in BCa cells. Moreover, the results of a series of functional assays showed that LINC01116 knockdown suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of BCa cells. Thereafter, GEPIA indicated the closest correlation of LINC01116 with two protein-coding genes, ELK3 and HOXD8. Interestingly, LINC01116 was mainly a cytoplasmic lncRNA in BCa cells, and it could modulate ELK3 and HOXD8 at post-transcriptional level. Mechanically, LINC01116 increased the expression of ELK3 by adsorbing miR-3612, and also stabilized HOXD8 mRNA by binding with DKC1. Rescue experiments further demonstrated that the restraining influence of LINC01116 knockdown on the progression of BCa, was partly rescued by ELK3 promotion, but absolutely reversed by the co-enhancement of ELK3 and HOXD8. More intriguingly, HOXD8 acted as a transcription factor to activate LINC01116 in BCa. In conclusion, HOXD8-enhanced LINC01116 contributes to the progression of BCa 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; 1234567890():,; via targeting ELK3 and HOXD8, which might provide new targets for treating patients with BCa. Introduction necessary to find more effective therapeutic targets for Bladder cancer (BCa) is one of the most prevalent BCa treatment. urogenital malignancies all over the world1,2. The high Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a kind of RNAs recurrence and mortality of BCa showed an increasing with more than 200 nucleotides and lacking protein- trend year by year3,4. Many factors participate in the coding potential11. In recent years, accumulating evi- tumorigenesis and progression of BCa, such as smoking, dence has indicated that lncRNAs play vital roles in the chemicals, and abnormal expression of genes5. In spite of biological processes of cancer cells12, including cell pro- great advancements in the treatment of BCa, the overall liferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis. For exam- survival of high-risk patients is still not optimistic6,7.As ple, lncRNA CDKN2BAS promotes metastasis via far as we know, an increasing number of evidence has suppressing miR-153-5p and its upregulation predicts reported the importance of abnormally expressed genes in poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carci- BCa progression8,9. On this basis, targeted therapy has noma13. Linc00472 suppresses cell proliferation and developed as a new road for treating patients with BCa, promotes cell apoptosis by sponging miR-196a to upre- especially those with advanced BCa10. Therefore, it is gulate PDCD4 expression in colorectal cancer14. B3GALT5-AS1 suppresses liver metastasis via inhibiting miRNA-203 in colon cancer15. Similarly, there are also a Correspondence: Zhaoxu Liu ([email protected]) 1Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250000 Shandong Province, China number of lncRNAs that have been identified as tumor Edited by B. Rotblat © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a linktotheCreativeCommons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Official journal of the Cell Death Differentiation Association Meng et al. Cell Death and Disease (2020) 11:1063 Page 2 of 15 promoters or tumor suppressors in BCa, such as Total RNA isolation and quantitative real-time polymerase LINC0160516 and GAS517. Nonetheless, most other chain reaction (RT-qPCR) lncRNAs affecting the development of BCa have not been Total RNA was isolated from the cultured cells employing unveiled. In this research, we aim to explore potential the Trizol reagent (Invitrogen), and reverse transcribed into lncRNAs related to the progression of BCa. cDNA as instructed by the provider (Takara, Shiga, Japan). Accumulating reports have indicated that LINC01116 Gene expression was examined by qPCR using the Prism plays a vital part in many cancers. For all we know, 7900 HT Fast Real-Time PCR system (Applied Biosystems, LINC01116 promotes the development of breast cancer by Foster City, CA), and defined using the threshold cycle (Ct). −ΔΔ combining with miR-145 to upregulate the expression of The relative level was calculated by 2 CT after standar- ESR118. Besides, LINC01116 also accelerates the progres- dization with reference to GAPDH or U6 expression. sion of epithelial ovarian cancer by means of regulating cell apoptosis19. Moreover, LINC01116 knockdown inhi- Plasmid transfection bits the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma by The designed shRNAs for LINC01116, DKC1, ELK3, regulating the expression of miR-13620. Such broad and HOXD8, as well as NC-shRNAs (sh-NC) were pro- oncogenic function of LINC01116 in different cancer types cured from Ribobio (Guangzhou, China) and transfected ™ aroused our interest in its role in BCa. More importantly, into J82 and T24 cells using Lipofectamine 3000 (Invi- according to data from GEPIA 2 database, we found that trogen). The miR-3612 mimics/inhibitor and NC mimics/ LINC01116 has overexpressed in patients with an inhibitor, as well as pcDNA3.1/ELK3, pcDNA3.1/ advanced stages of bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA), HOXD8, and NC-pcDNA3.1 were also produced by and the high expression of LINC01116 was associated with Ribobio. After 48 h, transfected cells were reaped. a low-survival rate in BLCA patients. Therefore, we planned to further explore the role of LINC01116 in BCa. Colony formation assay As is reported, lncRNAs can regulate the expression of Clonogenic J82 and T24 cells at the density of 500 cells protein-coding genes on the level of transcription or after were seeded into a 6-well plate for 14-day incubation. The transcription, which mainly depends on the interaction of clones were initially fixed by 4% paraformaldehyde and lncRNAs with microRNAs (miRNAs)21 or RNA-binding then counted manually after staining in 0.1% crystal violet. proteins22 in the cytoplasm or nucleus. In our study, we applied GEPIA 2 and figured out two protein-coding EdU assay genes (ELK3 and HOXD8) that were most significantly J82 and T24 cells at a density of 5 × 104 were planted correlated with LINC01116 in BLCA tumors. In addition, into the 96-well plate, and then cultured with EdU med- ELK323 and HOXD824 were also reported to be involved ium diluent for 2 h in light of the direction (Ribobio). in the progression of diverse cancer types. Hence, we After fixing and permeabilizing, cells were incubated in made an in-depth exploration of the relationship between DAPI solution, followed by observing by fluorescence LINC01116 and ELK3/HOXD8 in BCa. microscopy (Olympus, Tokyo, Japan). In summary, we aim to explore the biological role of LINC01116 in BCa and uncover its potential mechanisms JC-1 assay in regulating BCa progression. Meanwhile, we first mea- Cells in 96-well microplate were centrifuged for 5 min sured the relative expression of LINC01116 in BCa cells. and then loaded with JC-1 dye for 30 min after removing Further, in vitro experiments were employed to elucidate the culture medium. A fluorescent plate reader was the function as well as the molecular mechanisms of applied for the detection of mitochondrial transmembrane LINC01116 in BCa cells. The findings might be favorable potential (ΔΨm). Images were acquired by using fluores- for providing a novel target for the treatment of BCa. cence microscopy. Materials and methods Flow cytometry assay Cell lines and reagent Totally, 2 × 105 J82 and T24 cells were washed in pre- Human bladder epithelial cell line (SV-HUC-1) and cooled PBS and then collected for detecting cell apoptosis human BCa cell lines (RT-4, 5637, J82, T24) were all using Annexin V-FITC/PI Apoptosis kit as per user available from ATCC Company (Manassas, VA). They manual (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA). Following were grown in DMEM (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) under 15 min of incubation in dark, apoptotic cells were exam- 37 °C in 95% air/5% CO2 incubator, with 1% antibiotics ined by flow cytometer. mixture and 10% FBS as the medium supplements. Totally, 2 mg/ml of Actinomycin D (ActD; Sigma- Animal experiment Aldrich,St.Louis,MO)wasacquiredfortestingmRNA The 6-week-old male BALB/C nude mice were pur- stability. chased from Beijing Vital River Laboratory Animal Official journal of the Cell Death Differentiation Association Meng et al. Cell Death and Disease (2020) 11:1063 Page 3 of 15 Technology Co. Ltd. (Beijing, China), and used under the Subcellular fraction approval of the Animal Research Ethics Committee of After washing in precooled PBS, 1 × 106 J82, and T24 Qilu Hospital of Shandong University. For xenograft cells were centrifuged at 500 × g and then processed with ™ tumor assay, 1 × 106 transfected BCa cells were prepared PARIS Kit (Invitrogen) for subcellular fraction assay.