Tumor Biol. DOI 10.1007/s13277-015-3139-2
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Decreased expression of long noncoding RNA MEG3 affects cell proliferation and predicts a poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer Dan-dan Yin & Zhi-jun Liu & Erbao Zhang & Rong Kong & Zhi-hong Zhang & Ren-hua Guo
Received: 28 November 2014 / Accepted: 19 January 2015 # International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) 2015
Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains an important public health problem in the world. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is an RNA molecular that is longer than 200 nucleotides and cannot be translated into a protein. Recent studies have shown that lncRNAs play important roles in carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression and biological role of lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) in colorectal cancer. Quantitative real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to investigate the expression of MEG3 in tumor tissues and corresponding nontumor colorectal tissues from 62 patients. The lower expression of MEG3 was remarkably correlated with low histological grade, deep tumor invasion, and advanced tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage. Multivariate analyses revealed that MEG3 expression served as an independent predictor for
overall survival. Further experiments revealed that overexpressed MEG3 significantly inhibited CRC cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that MEG3 is involved in the development and progression of colorectal cancer by regulating cell proliferation and shows that MEG3 may be a potential diagnostic and prognostic target in patients with colorectal cancer.
Dan-dan Yin and Zhi-jun Liu contributed equally to this work and should be regarded as joint first authors.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important public health problem in the world [1]. Till now, there are about half of the patients diagnosed with this common malignancy will recur and die of disease within 5 years of diagnosis. The 5-year survival rate of CRC patient is still low [2]. For colorectal cancer, new and effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. It is essential to find new biomarkers for metastatic progression in colorectal cancer. Lately, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been stressed in many biological and pathological processes [3]. The noncoding transcripts include ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) [4]. LncRNAs transcript longer than 200 bp and are unable to be translated into protein, representing a less investigated class of noncoding RNAs [5]. Till now, only a handful of lncRNAs have been well characterized. Previous researches that have demonstrated dysregulated lncRNA could be linked with diverse human diseases, including cancers [6]. Most characterized lncRNAs play oncogenic or
D.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Decreased expression of long noncoding RNA MEG3 affects cell proliferation and predicts a poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer Dan-dan Yin & Zhi-jun Liu & Erbao Zhang & Rong Kong & Zhi-hong Zhang & Ren-hua Guo
Received: 28 November 2014 / Accepted: 19 January 2015 # International Society of Oncology and BioMarkers (ISOBM) 2015
Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains an important public health problem in the world. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) is an RNA molecular that is longer than 200 nucleotides and cannot be translated into a protein. Recent studies have shown that lncRNAs play important roles in carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression and biological role of lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) in colorectal cancer. Quantitative real-time-PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to investigate the expression of MEG3 in tumor tissues and corresponding nontumor colorectal tissues from 62 patients. The lower expression of MEG3 was remarkably correlated with low histological grade, deep tumor invasion, and advanced tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage. Multivariate analyses revealed that MEG3 expression served as an independent predictor for
overall survival. Further experiments revealed that overexpressed MEG3 significantly inhibited CRC cell proliferation both in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that MEG3 is involved in the development and progression of colorectal cancer by regulating cell proliferation and shows that MEG3 may be a potential diagnostic and prognostic target in patients with colorectal cancer.
Dan-dan Yin and Zhi-jun Liu contributed equally to this work and should be regarded as joint first authors.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important public health problem in the world [1]. Till now, there are about half of the patients diagnosed with this common malignancy will recur and die of disease within 5 years of diagnosis. The 5-year survival rate of CRC patient is still low [2]. For colorectal cancer, new and effective therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. It is essential to find new biomarkers for metastatic progression in colorectal cancer. Lately, noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been stressed in many biological and pathological processes [3]. The noncoding transcripts include ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) [4]. LncRNAs transcript longer than 200 bp and are unable to be translated into protein, representing a less investigated class of noncoding RNAs [5]. Till now, only a handful of lncRNAs have been well characterized. Previous researches that have demonstrated dysregulated lncRNA could be linked with diverse human diseases, including cancers [6]. Most characterized lncRNAs play oncogenic or
D.
