Abstract
The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) HOXA cluster antisense RNA2 (HOXA-AS2) has recently been shown to be dysregulated and involved in the progression of several cancers. However, the biological role and clinical significance of HOXA-AS2 in the carcinogenesis of breast cancer are still unclear. In the present study, we found that HOXA-AS2 was up-regulated in human breast cancer tissues and cell lines and associated with clinicopathological characteristics. Silencing of HOXA-AS2 inhibited the progression of breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, microarray profiling indicated that HOXA-AS2 serves as an endogenous sponge by directly binding to miR-520c-3p and down-regulating miR-520c-3p expression. We demonstrated that HOXA-AS2 controls the expression of miR-520c-3p target genes, TGFBR2 and RELA, in breast cancer cells. Therefore, our study may provide a better understanding of the pathogenesis of breast cancer and suggests that HOXA-AS2 may be a potential prognostic and therapeutic target in breast cancer.
Highlights
Breast cancer is a malignant tumor originating from breast tissue and is the most common cancer in women worldwide [1, 2]
The expression level of HOXA-AS2 was detected by Quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) in 38 pairs of breast cancer tissues (Tumor) compared with corresponding adjacent normal tissues (Normal), and we found that HOXA-AS2 expression was significantly up-regulated in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues (Figure 1A)
Our results showed that HOXA-AS2 was up-regulated in breast www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget cancer and associated with invasion, lymphatic metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage, and postoperative survival
Summary
Breast cancer is a malignant tumor originating from breast tissue and is the most common cancer in women worldwide [1, 2]. The development of early diagnoses, radical surgery and adjuvant therapy has decreased the mortality rates of breast cancer [3,4,5]; it is still the most common gynecologic cancer. In China, the growing incidence of breast cancer threatens women’s health and has gradually become a social problem [6]. Research has shown that many molecular triggers play significant roles in breast cancer development and chemotherapy resistance [7]. The molecular regulatory network of breast cancer is very complex, and the molecular mechanisms of breast cancer progression needed to be further explored. Only 1-2% of genes encode proteins [8], and the rest of the genome encodes a large amount of non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) [9]
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