EBV-encoded miRNAs can sensitize nasopharyngeal carcinoma to chemotherapeutic drugs by targeting BRCA1.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated epithelial malignancy. The high expression of BART-miRNAs (miR-BARTs) during latent EBV infection in NPC strongly supports their pathological importance in cancer progression. Recently, we found that several BART-miRNAs work co-operatively to modulate the DNA damage response (DDR) by reducing Ataxia-telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) activity. In this study, we further investigated the role of miR-BARTs on DDR. The immunohistochemical study showed that the DNA repair gene, BRCA1, is consistently down-regulated in primary NPCs. Using computer prediction programs and a series of reporter assays, we subsequently identified the negative regulatory role of BART2-3p, BART12, BART17-5p and BART19-3p in BRCA1 expression. The ectopic expression of these four miR-BARTs suppressed endogenous BRCA1 expression in EBV-negative epithelial cell lines, whereas BRCA1 expression was enhanced by repressing endogenous miR-BARTs activities in C666-1 cells. More importantly, suppressing BRCA1 expression in nasopharyngeal epithelial cell lines using miR-BART17-5p and miR-BART19-3p mimics reduced the DNA repair capability and increased the cell sensitivity to the DNA-damaging chemotherapeutic drugs, cisplatin and doxorubicin. Our findings suggest that miR-BARTs play a novel role in DDR and may facilitate the development of effective NPC therapies.

EXOSC4 functions as a potential oncogene in development and progression of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous disease with complex mechanisms of pathogenesis. Classification systems have been proposed based on molecular features of tumors in clinical practice. Thus, more molecular markers associated with development and progression of CRC might serve as useful tools for early diagnosis even for providing more accurate molecular classification. Frequent gain of chromosome 8q was detected in CRC by array-CGH and overexpression of exosome component 4 (EXOSC4) in this region was revealed by expression microarray analysis. Through qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis, EXOSC4 showed increased expression in CRC cell lines and clinical specimens. Higher expression of EXOSC4 was more often detected in left side, and correlated with BRAF wild type, MSI-low or MSS, CIMP-low, and MLH1-no-silence CRC patients. Functionally, EXOSC4 overexpression increased early tumorigenic capacity by promoting cell proliferation and monolayer colony formation, enhancing cell invasion and migration study and accelerating xenograft formation in nude mice. While EXOSC4 knockdown exhibited anti-oncogenic role such as inhibiting cell proliferation and invasion. EXOSC4 inhibition also resulted in G1 phase cell cycle arrest. For the downstream signaling analysis, EXOSC4 was found to be involved in multiple signaling pathways such as cell cycle, p53 pathway and Wnt pathway. In summary, our findings demonstrated the oncogenic role of EXOSC4 in development and progression of CRC. Deep understanding of EXOSC4 as a potential diagnostic molecular biomarker will provide clinical translational potential for intervention therapy.

RASAL2 promotes tumor progression through LATS2/YAP1 axis of hippo signaling pathway in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) have a high incidence of regional and distant metastases. Although metastasis is the main cause of CRC-related death, its molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. METHODS: Using array-CGH and expression microarray analyses, changes in DNA copy number and mRNA expression levels were investigated in human CRC samples. The mRNA expression level of RASAL2 was validated by qRT-PCR, and the protein expression was evaluated by western blot as well as immunohistochemistry in CRC cell lines and primary tumors. The functional role of RASAL2 in CRC was determined by MTT proliferation assay, monolayer and soft agar colony formation assays, cell cycle analysis, cell invasion and migration and in vivo study through siRNA/shRNA mediated knockdown and overexpression assays. Identification of RASAL2 involved in hippo pathway was achieved by expression microarray screening, double immunofluorescence staining and co-immunoprecipitation assays. RESULTS: Integrated genomic analysis identified copy number gains and upregulation of RASAL2 in metastatic CRC. RASAL2 encodes a RAS-GTPase-activating protein (RAS-GAP) and showed increased expression in CRC cell lines and clinical specimens. Higher RASAL2 expression was significantly correlated with lymph node involvement and distant metastasis in CRC patients. Moreover, we found that RASAL2 serves as an independent prognostic marker of overall survival in CRC patients. In vitro and in vivo functional studies revealed that RASAL2 promoted tumor progression in both KRAS/NRAS mutant and wild-type CRC cells. Knockdown of RASAL2 promoted YAP1 phosphorylation, cytoplasm retention and ubiquitination, therefore activating the hippo pathway through the LATS2/YAP1 axis. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated the roles of RASAL2 in CRC tumorigenesis as well as metastasis, and RASAL2 exerts its oncogenic property through LATS2/YAP1 axis of hippo signaling pathway in CRC.

miR-375 is involved in Hippo pathway by targeting YAP1/TEAD4-CTGF axis in gastric carcinogenesis.

miR-375 is a tumor-suppressive microRNA (miRNA) in gastric cancer (GC). However, its molecular mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this study is to comprehensively investigate how miR-375 is involved in Hippo pathway by targeting multiple oncogenes. miR-375 expression in gastric cancer cell lines and primary GC was investigated by qRT-PCR. The regulation of YAP1, TEAD4, and CTGF expression by miR-375 was evaluated by qRT-PCR, western blot, and luciferase reporter assays, respectively. The functional roles of the related genes were examined by siRNA-mediated knockdown or ectopic expression assays. The clinical significance and expression correlation analysis of miR-375, YAP1, and CTGF were performed in primary GCs. TCGA cohort was also used to analyze the expression correlation of YAP1, TEAD4, CTGF, and miR-375 in primary GCs. miR-375 was down-regulated in GC due to promoter methylation and histone deacetylation. miR-375 downregulation was associated with unfavorable outcome and lymph node metastasis. Ectopic expression of miR-375 inhibited tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. Three components of Hippo pathway, YAP1, TEAD4 and CTGF, were revealed to be direct targets of miR-375. The expression of three genes showed a negative correlation with miR-375 expression and YAP1 re-expression partly abolished the tumor-suppressive effect of miR-375. Furthermore, CTGF was confirmed to be the key downstream of Hippo-YAP1 cascade and its knockdown phenocopied siYAP1 or miR-375 overexpression. YAP1 nuclear accumulation was positively correlated with CTGF cytoplasmic expression in primary GC tissues. Verteporfin exerted an anti-oncogenic effect in GC cell lines by quenching CTGF expression through YAP1 degradation. In short, miR-375 was involved in the Hippo pathway by targeting YAP1-TEAD4-CTGF axis and enriched our knowledge on the miRNA dysregulation in gastric tumorigenesis.

EBV-encoded miRNAs target ATM-mediated response in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a highly invasive epithelial malignancy that is prevalent in southern China and Southeast Asia. It is consistently associated with latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. In NPC, miR-BARTs, the EBV-encoded miRNAs derived from BamH1-A rightward transcripts, are abundantly expressed and contribute to cancer development by targeting various cellular and viral genes. In this study, we establish a comprehensive transcriptional profile of EBV-encoded miRNAs in a panel of NPC patient-derived xenografts and an EBV-positive NPC cell line by small RNA sequencing. Among the 40 miR-BARTs, predominant expression of 22 miRNAs was consistently detected in these tumors. Among the abundantly expressed EBV-miRNAs, BART5-5p, BART7-3p, BART9-3p, and BART14-3p could negatively regulate the expression of a key DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair gene, ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), by binding to multiple sites on its 3'-UTR. Notably, the expression of these four miR-BARTs represented more than 10% of all EBV-encoded miRNAs in tumor cells, while downregulation of ATM expression was commonly detected in all of our tested sequenced samples. In addition, downregulation of ATM was also observed in primary NPC tissues in both qRT-PCR (16 NP and 45 NPC cases) and immunohistochemical staining (35 NP and 46 NPC cases) analysis. Modulation of ATM expression by BART5-5p, BART7-3p, BART9-3p, and BART14-3p was demonstrated in the transient transfection assays. These findings suggest that EBV uses miRNA machinery as a key mechanism to control the ATM signaling pathway in NPC cells. By suppressing these endogenous miR-BARTs in EBV-positive NPC cells, we further demonstrated the novel function of miR-BARTs in inhibiting Zta-induced lytic reactivation. These findings imply that the four viral miRNAs work co-operatively to modulate ATM activity in response to DNA damage and to maintain viral latency, contributing to the tumorigenesis of NPC. © 2017 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Downregulation of long non-coding RNA MEG3 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

In our previous whole-transcriptome sequencing analysis, downregulation of a long non-coding RNA, maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3), was identified in NPC samples. This finding suggests the possible role of MEG3 as a tumor suppressor in this distinctive disease. In the present study, two MEG3 variants, AF119863 (MEG3-AF) and BX247998 (MEG3-BX), were found abundantly expressed in a normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line, NP69. Significant downregulation of MEG3-AF was further verified in a panel of NPC samples including xenografts and primary biopsies. MEG3 is an imprinted gene located within chromosome 14q32, a common deleted region in NPC. Both DNA copy number loss and aberrant promoter methylation contributed to MEG3 inactivation. Interestingly, MEG3 expression could successfully be rescued by the treatment of a demethylation agent. Besides, ectopic expression of MEG3 in NPC cell lines resulted in considerable repression of in vitro anchorage-independent growth and in vivo tumorigenicity, in addition to significant inhibition in cell proliferation, colony formation, and induction of cell cycle arrest. Finally, we revealed the association between MEG3 activity and the p53 signaling cascade. Our findings characterize MEG3 as a tumor suppressive long non-coding RNA in NPC and encourage the development of precise long non-coding RNA-targeted epigenetic therapy against this malignancy. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.