Abstract
BCAR4 (Breast Cancer Anti-Estrogen Resistance 4) is a long noncoding RNA that was identified as an oncogene in breast cancer. In our research, we found that the expression level of BCAR4 was upregulated in colon cancer tissues compared to paired normal tissues. What's more, higher BCAR4 expression was correlated with lower survival rate in patients with colon cancer. Mechanistically, we showed that BCAR4 activated Wnt/β-catenin signaling in colon cancer by protecting β-catenin from degradation. We also showed that BCAR4 overexpression promoted cell proliferation and migration in colon cancer. However, silencing BCAR4 inhibited cell growth and promoted apoptosis. Besides, BCAR4 knockdown decreased tumor growth in vivo. These findings indicate that BCAR4 facilitated colon cancer progression by enhancing cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis via BCAR4/β-catenin axis. BCAR4 may be a useful new target for treatment of patients with colon cancer.
Highlights
Colon cancer (CC) is one of the most common cancers around the world, which leads to large amounts of deaths every year [1, 2]
We found that the expression level of BCAR4 was upregulated in colon cancer tissues compared to paired normal tissues
BCAR4 was upregulated in colon cancer and positively correlated with clinical severity and poor prognosis
Summary
Colon cancer (CC) is one of the most common cancers around the world, which leads to large amounts of deaths every year [1, 2]. Expression dysregulation of genes including long noncoding RNAs (lncRNA) is tightly correlated with the initiation and progression of colon cancer, which leads to some changes of biological characteristics in cancer cells, such as proliferation, migration, apoptosis and metabolism [3, 4]. By cooperating with transcriptional factors (TFs) or remodeling complex, lncRNAs participate in regulation of gene expression [8, 9]. BCAR4 was shown to contribute to osteosarcoma progression via activation of GLI2-dependent gene transcription [15, 16] while it promotes chondrosarcoma cell proliferation and migration by activating mTOR signaling [17]. Upregulated expression of BCAR4 is positively correlated with poor prognosis in patients with non-small cell lung cancer [18]. Whether BCAR4 plays a critical role in colon cancer remains to be elaborated
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