Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 12 pp 12086—12106

CASC21, a FOXP1 induced long non-coding RNA, promotes colorectal cancer growth by regulating CDK6

Tao Gong1, *, , Yu Li2, *, , Liang Feng3, , MingZhi Fang1, , Guoliang Dai4, , Xin Huang1, , Ye Yang5, , Shenlin Liu2, ,

  • 1 Oncology, Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing Hospital of Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China
  • 2 Oncology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China
  • 3 Oncology, School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China
  • 4 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China
  • 5 School of Medicine and Life Sciences, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu, China
* Equal contribution

Received: November 23, 2019       Accepted: April 27, 2020       Published: June 25, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103376
How to Cite

Copyright © 2020 Gong et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Emerging studies indicate that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in colorectal cancer (CRC). Here, we reported lncRNA CASC21, which is induced by FOXP1, functions as an oncogene in CRC. We systematically elucidated its clinical significance and possible molecular mechanism in CRC. LncRNA expression in CRC was analyzed by RNA-sequencing data in TCGA. The expression level of CASC21 in tissues was determined by qRT-PCR. The functions of CASC21 was investigated by in vitro and in vivo assays (CCK8 assay, colony formation assay, EdU assay, xenograft model, flow cytometry assay, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot). Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) and luciferase reporter assays were utilized to demonstrate the potential mechanisms of CASC21. CASC21 is overexpressed in CRC and high CASC21 expression is associated with poor survival. Functional experiments revealed that CASC21 promotes CRC cell growth. Mechanistically, we found that CASC21 expressed predominantly in the cytoplasm. CASC21 could interact with miR-539-5p and regulate its target CDK6. Together, our study elucidated that CASC21 acted as an oncogene in CRC, which might serve as a novel target for CRC diagnosis and therapy.

Abbreviations

lncRNAs: long non-coding RNAs; CRC: colorectal cancer; IHC: immunohistochemistry; ChIP: Chromatin immunoprecipitation; RIP: RNA immunoprecipitation; 3’-UTR: 3’-Untranslated Regions; FISH: RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization; GSEA: gene set enrichment analysis.