Long noncoding RNA ZEB1-AS1 predicts an unfavorable prognosis of non-small lung cancer and regulates epithelial to mesenchymal transition through reducing ZEB1 expression

Junying Li; Zongan Liang; Jun Zheng; Xiaohong Zhang; Jing Fu

Long noncoding RNA ZEB1-AS1 predicts an unfavorable prognosis of non-small lung cancer and regulates epithelial to mesenchymal transition through reducing ZEB1 expression

Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2017 Nov 1;10(11):10910-10917. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Junying Li^{1

2}, Zongan Liang¹, Jun Zheng², Xiaohong Zhang², Jing Fu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory Medicine, West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University Chengdu 610041, P. R. China.
² Department of Emergency Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital Chengdu 610032, P. R. China.

PMID: 31966434
PMCID: PMC6965832

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are critical gene regulators with important roles in a wide variety of biological processes, including tumorigenesis. ZEB1-AS1 was significantly increased in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, and its expression levels were highly associated with aggressive tumor progression and poor prognosis. Down-regulation of ZEB1-AS1 suppresses NSCLC cell proliferation and invasion in vitro, as well as inhibits xenograft tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we found that ZEB1-AS1 down-regulation effectively suppressed EMT process through reducing ZEB1 expression, and the ectopic expression of ZEB1 restored the migratory and invasive abilities of NSCLC cells inhibited by ZEB1-AS1 down-regulation. In conclusion, these findings revealed that ZEB1-AS1 plays regulatory roles in NSCLC and it might become a novel molecular indicator of prognosis and therapeutic target in NSCLC.

Keywords: Long non-coding RNA; ZEB1; ZEB1-AS1; cell cycle; epithelial to mesenchymal transition; non-small cell lung cancer; prognosis.