PHAROH lncRNA regulates Myc translation in hepatocellular carcinoma via sequestering TIAR
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, United States
- Cima, University of Navarra, Spain
- Ionis Pharmaceutials, United States
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver malignancy, is one of the most lethal forms of cancer. We identified a long non-coding RNA, Gm19705, that is over-expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma and mouse embryonic stem cells. We named this RNA Pluripotency and Hepatocyte Associated RNA Overexpressed in HCC, or PHAROH. Depletion of PHAROH impacts cell proliferation and migration, which can be rescued by ectopic expression of PHAROH. RNA-seq analysis of PHAROH knockouts revealed that a large number of genes with decreased expression contain a Myc motif in their promoter. MYC is decreased at the protein level, but not the mRNA level. RNA-antisense pulldown identified nucleolysin TIAR, a translational repressor, to bind to a 71-nt hairpin within PHAROH, sequestration of which increases MYC translation. In summary, our data suggest that PHAROH regulates MYC translation by sequestering TIAR and as such represents a potentially exciting diagnostic or therapeutic target in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Data availability
RNA-seq data has been uploaded to GEO: GSE167316
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PHAROH lncRNA regulates c-Myc translation in hepatocellular carcinoma via sequestering TIARNCBI Gene Expression Omnibus, GSE167316.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Cancer Institute (5PO1CA013106-Project 3 and 5R35GM131833)
- David L Spector
National Cancer Institute (5F31CA220997)
- Allen T Yu
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Robert H Singer, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Animal experimental protocols were approved (CEEA 062-16) and performed according to the guidelines of the Ethics Committee for Animal Testing of the University of Navarra.
Human subjects: The Human Research Review Committee of the University of Navarra (CEI 47/2015) approved the study and human samples were provided by the Biobank of the University of Navarra. The biobank obtained an informed consent and consent to publish from each patient and codified samples were provided to the researchers. The study protocol conformed to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki. Samples were processed following standard operating procedures approved by the Ethical and Scientific Committees. Liver samples from healthy patients were collected from individuals with normal or minimal changes in the liver at surgery of digestive tumors or from percutaneous liver biopsy performed because of mild alterations of liver function. Samples for cirrhotic liver and HCC were obtained from patients undergoing partial hepatectomy and/or liver transplantation.
Version history
- Received: March 10, 2021
- Accepted: May 2, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 18, 2021 (version 1)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: May 20, 2021 (version 2)
- Version of Record published: May 28, 2021 (version 3)
Copyright
© 2021, Yu et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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PHAROH lncRNA regulates Myc translation in hepatocellular carcinoma via sequestering TIAR
eLife 10:e68263.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.68263
Further reading
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- Cancer Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Enhancers are critical for regulating tissue-specific gene expression, and genetic variants within enhancer regions have been suggested to contribute to various cancer-related processes, including therapeutic resistance. However, the precise mechanisms remain elusive. Using a well-defined drug-gene pair, we identified an enhancer region for dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD, DPYD gene) expression that is relevant to the metabolism of the anti-cancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Using reporter systems, CRISPR genome-edited cell models, and human liver specimens, we demonstrated in vitro and vivo that genotype status for the common germline variant (rs4294451; 27% global minor allele frequency) located within this novel enhancer controls DPYD transcription and alters resistance to 5-FU. The variant genotype increases recruitment of the transcription factor CEBPB to the enhancer and alters the level of direct interactions between the enhancer and DPYD promoter. Our data provide insight into the regulatory mechanisms controlling sensitivity and resistance to 5-FU.
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- Cancer Biology
- Epidemiology and Global Health
Background:
Age is the most important risk factor for cancer, but aging rates are heterogeneous across individuals. We explored a new measure of aging-Phenotypic Age (PhenoAge)-in the risk prediction of site-specific and overall cancer.
Methods:
Using Cox regression models, we examined the association of Phenotypic Age Acceleration (PhenoAgeAccel) with cancer incidence by genetic risk group among 374,463 participants from the UK Biobank. We generated PhenoAge using chronological age and nine biomarkers, PhenoAgeAccel after subtracting the effect of chronological age by regression residual, and an incidence-weighted overall cancer polygenic risk score (CPRS) based on 20 cancer site-specific polygenic risk scores (PRSs).
Results:
Compared with biologically younger participants, those older had a significantly higher risk of overall cancer, with hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.22 (95% confidence interval, 1.18–1.27) in men, and 1.26 (1.22–1.31) in women, respectively. A joint effect of genetic risk and PhenoAgeAccel was observed on overall cancer risk, with HRs of 2.29 (2.10–2.51) for men and 1.94 (1.78–2.11) for women with high genetic risk and older PhenoAge compared with those with low genetic risk and younger PhenoAge. PhenoAgeAccel was negatively associated with the number of healthy lifestyle factors (Beta = –1.01 in men, p<0.001; Beta = –0.98 in women, p<0.001).
Conclusions:
Within and across genetic risk groups, older PhenoAge was consistently related to an increased risk of incident cancer with adjustment for chronological age and the aging process could be retarded by adherence to a healthy lifestyle.
Funding:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82230110, 82125033, 82388102 to GJ; 82273714 to MZ); and the Excellent Youth Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20220100 to MZ).
