Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 12 pp 16267—16286
Long non-coding RNA HCP5 functions as a sponge of miR-29b-3p and promotes cell growth and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma through upregulating DNMT3A
- 1 Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Wuxi Second Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
- 2 Department of General Surgery, BenQ Medical Center, The Affiliated BenQ Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
- 3 Department of Imaging, Wuxi Second Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
- 4 Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Kunshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China
Received: September 30, 2020 Accepted: January 21, 2021 Published: June 18, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203155How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Zhou 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
Multiple studies have revealed that long non-coding RNA (lncRNAs) served as regulatory factors in modulating tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we demonstrated that lncRNA HCP5 was overexpressed in HCC tissues and cell lines, and these findings were obvious even in metastatic and recurrent cases. Knockdown of HCP5 significantly alleviated cell growth, metastasis, and invasion both in vitro and in vivo through promoting apoptosis and by inactivating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) progress. Moreover, miR-29b-3p has been identified as a negatively regulatory target gene of HCP5, and served as a tumor suppressor of HCC to prevent cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Subsequently, DNMT3A was identified as a downstream regulatory factor of miR-29b-3p, and acted as a participated element of HCC progression by activating AKT phosphorylation. Taken together, our study elucidated for the first time that HCP5 plays a crucial role in HCC via the HCP5/miR-29b-3p/DNMT3A/AKT axis and our findings demonstrated a novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategy with potentiality to treat HCC.