Increased expression of long-noncoding RNA ZFAS1 is associated with epithelial-mesenchymal transition of gastric cancer.

Hu Zhou,Fubing Wang,Shili Qiu,Chunzi Liang,Shengwei Ye,Hao Chen,Mingxia Yu,Shanshan Chen,Wei Jing,Jiancheng Tu,Qian Tan

doi:10.18632/aging.101048

Hu Zhou, Fubing Wang + Show 9 more

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https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101048

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Abstract

LncRNAs play critical roles in gastric cancer (GC). In this study, the expression of fourteen cancer related lncRNAs were investigated in paired tissues of 66 patients with GC, Realtime RT-PCR revealed that ZFAS1 was significantly upregulated. We then examined the expression of ZFAS1 in plasmas derived from 77 GC patients before- and post-operations and 60 healthy individuals, and found that circulating ZFAS1 was also upregulated in GC patients and operation can reduce its presence in plasma. To investigate the potential mechanisms, we compared the expression of ZFAS1 in multiple gastric cell lines and one normal cell line and found that ZFAS1 was up-regulated in GC cell lines. Furthermore, circulating tumor cells (CTC) were simulated by mixing GC cells with peripheral blood. After EpCAM antibody-based cell sorting, we found that the expression of ZFAS1 was positively correlated with EMT property of CTCs. In GC patient tissue samples, we found that Twist was positively correlated with ZFAS1 by immunohistochemical staining. Taken together, our results suggested that ZFAS1 was up-regulated in both tissues and plasmas of GC patients, and may be involved in regulation of EMT in GC progression. Thus, ZFAS1 might serve as a potential diagnostic marker and/or therapeutic target for GC.

Highlights

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1, 2]
To evaluate the expression of fourteen candidate Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in gastric cancer (GC) tissues, we performed real-time RTPCR to quantify these lncRNAs in GC tissues and the paired normal tissues derived from sixty-six GC patients
In addition to expression in tissues, we examined ZFAS1 expression in seventy-seven paired plasma samples derived from GC patients and sixty plasma samples from healthy controls

Summary

Introduction

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide [1, 2]. One of the major cause of cancer associated mortality is tumor metastasis, early diagnosis of GC is of particular significance for the prognosis. Many studies have revealed that lncRNAs could play critical roles in many biological processes including cellular differentiation, invasion, and metastasis [5,6,7]. Circulating lncRNAs has been applied for cancer diagnosis and prognosis [12], and could be used as potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets for gastric cancer [13]

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