Published online Aug 7, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i29.3972
Peer-review started: April 28, 2019
First decision: May 24, 2019
Revised: June 7, 2019
Accepted: June 25, 2019
Article in press: June 26, 2019
Published online: August 7, 2019
Processing time: 102 Days and 23.1 Hours
Among common types of gastrointestinal malignancies, colorectal cancer (CRC) has seen a dramatic increase in annual global incidence rate. Many recent studies have demonstrated the molecular mechanisms involved in the transcriptional regulation in CRC, and shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an irreplaceable role in the initiation and progression of CRC, such as maintaining cell growth, evasion of apoptosis, promotion of invasion and metastasis, stemness maintenance and EMT.
To identify more biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of CRC.
To investigate the underlying mechanisms of lncRNA maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) in CRC.
LncRNA MEG3 expression was observed by qRT-PCR assays on CRC tissue, cell lines and serum. Clinicopathological characteristics were collected, arranged and combined with expression analysis of CRC to evaluate the functions of lncRNA MEG3. Cell function assays were performed to explore the functions of MEG3 in CRC cell lines. Moreover, western blots were performed to explore the targeted regulation by MEG3 in CRC cell lines.
We found that levels of LncRNA MEG3 decreased in CRC tissues, cell lines and serum, and exhibited a significant negative relation with tumor size, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis. Cell experiments showed that MEG3 levels declined during CR cell line proliferation and invasion, and that ADAR1 may be the target regulated by lncRNA MEG3 in CRC cells. Importantly, CRC patients with higher lncRNA MEG3 levels have a better overall survival rate.
Our study demonstrated that lncRNA MEG3 can significantly inhibit cell growth, migration and invasion of gastric cancer. Furthermore, it can work through ADAR1. Therefore, our study provides some molecular mechanism and two new biomarkers for CRC.
In the future, research may reveal the important role of lncRNA MEG3 that enhances the sensitivity of CRC detection, and further develop its application for anti-cancer treatments. The identification of the lncRNA MEG3/ADAR1 molecular axis may further explain the underlying mechanism.