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Zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 antisense 1 (ZEB1-AS1) has displayed vital regulatory function in various tumors. However, the biological function of ZEB1-AS1 in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) remains unclear. In this study, we confirmed that ZEB1-AS1 expression was increased in CCA tissues and cells, respectively. Upregulated ZEB1-AS1 was related to lymph node invasion, advanced TNM stage and poor survival of CCA patients. ZEB1-AS1 exhibited high sensitivity and specificity to be an independent poor prognostic factor of patients with CCA. Functionally, knocking down ZEB1-AS1 attenuated tumor cell stemness, restrained cellular viability in vitro and in vivo, and inhibited CCA cell migration and invasion by reversing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. For the mechanism, androgen receptor (AR) directly promoted ZEB1-AS1 expression, and further ZEB1-AS1 increased oncogene homeobox B8 (HOXB8) by sponging miR-133b. In addition, malignant phenotypes of CCA promoted by ZEB1-AS1 dysregulation were rescued separately through interfering miR-133b and HOXB8, suggesting AR/ZEB1-AS1/miR-133b/HOXB8 exerted crucial functions in tumorigenesis and progression of CCA.

Considerable research has shown that religion operates as a protective factor for one’s health. However, there is still a lack of understanding of the mechanisms by which religion is linked to individual health and wellbeing, especially in predominantly secular societies. This study tried to address this gap by developing a theoretical model to examine how religiosity is related to life satisfaction and health perception in a non-Western culture. Macau, a Portuguese colony until 1999, remains a diversified culture because of its intermixed historical background from the East and the West. Through structural equation modeling, the analysis of data collected from a representative sample of Macau residents, using a multistage stratified sampling procedure, indicated a positive link between religiosity and health. Moreover, altruism and prejudice mediated a portion of the relationship between religiosity and health. Additionally, our results demonstrated that Macau residents who were more religious had a higher level of altruism and a lower level of prejudice. The link between religion and prejudice in Macau differs from that of many other cultures, indicating that the effect of religion on prejudice varies by cultural context. In sum, our study showed that even in the shadow of glittering casinos, religion is positively related to health.

Objective: A large number of studies had found that small nucleolar RNA host gene 20 (SNHG20) was a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) that played important regulatory functions in numerous tumors. Nevertheless, the expression and pathophysiological role of SNHG20 in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are currently unclear. The objective of this study is to reveal the clinical significance and pathophysiological function of SNHG20 in CCA. Methods: The tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues of CCA were obtained to determine the expression and clinical significance of SNHG20, and the targets of related genes were predicted through bioinformatics analysis. The function and regulatory mechanism of SNHG20 in CCA were evaluated by transfection, CCK-8 experiment, and luciferase reporter assay. Result: In CCA, SNHG20 was highly expressed. Overexpressed SNHG20 was markedly interrelated with the lymph node invasion and TNM stage. In addition, it could be used as indicator to evaluate the prognosis of patients. SNHG20 sponging miR-520f-3p could accelerate the proliferation of CCA tumor cells. MiR-520f-3p acted as a tumor suppressor in CCA and could also serve as a prognostic indicator. Abolition of miR-520f-3p caused an antagonistic effect and diminished the impacts of SNHG20 knockdown. SNHG20 combined with miR-520f-3p could better predict the prognosis of CCA patients. Conclusion: These data confirmed the knockdown SNHG20 expression in CCA could inhibit the proliferation by means of sponging miR-520f-3p.

This study was designed to illustrate the function and role of PCAT1 in CCA. The relative expression was confirmed by RT-qPCR and western blot. The biological function of PCAT1 was evaluated by CCK8, EdU, colony formation, wound healing, transwell, and subcutaneous tumor formation assays. Protein levels of EMT markers were measured by western blot. The binding relationship was predicted by JASPAR and starBase. The binding of YY1 to PCAT1 promoter was assessed by ChIP and luciferase reporter. The binding capacity between miR-216a-3p and PCAT1 as well as BCL3 was assessed by luciferase reporter and AGO2-RIP assays. In this study, we found that PCAT1 was up-regulated in CCA tissues and cells, and the PCAT1 overexpression was associated with poor prognosis. Moreover, PCAT1 was assessed as an independent risk factor of prognosis for CCA patients. Amplified PCAT1 was found to promote tumor proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT process, whereas PCAT1 knockdown inhibited these malignant phenotypes. Mechanistically, PCAT1 was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm and competitively bound miR-216a-3p to increase BCL3 expression. In addition, PCAT1 was activated by transcription factor YY1. This study revealed that PCAT1 acted as an oncogene in CCA, and the YY1/PCAT1/miR-216a-3p/BCL3 axis exhibited critical functions in CCA progression.

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is one of the most aggressive and lethal malignancies. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are being found to play crucial roles in CCA progression. This work aims to investigate the roles of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 667 (LINC00667) in progression of CCA. RT-qPCR and western blot were applied to detect gene expression. Clinical correlation and survival were analyzed by statistical methods. Overexpression and RNA interference approaches were used to investigate the effects of LINC00667 on CCA cells. Tumor xenograft assay was performed to detect the function of LINC00667 in vivo. Transcriptional regulation and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism were predicted via bioinformatics analysis. ChIP, luciferase reporter, and Ago2 RIP assays further confirmed the predicted results. Our data indicated that LINC00667 was highly expressed in CCA tissues and cells, and transcription factor Yin Yang 1 (YY1) induced LINC00667 expression in CCA cells. Up-regulated LINC00667 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and poor prognosis. Knockdown of LINC00667 suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of CCA cells, while overexpression of LINC00667 acquired opposite effects. Moreover, knockdown of LINC00667 inhibited tumor growth in vivo. In addition, LINC00667 was demonstrated to function as a ceRNA for miR-200c-3p, and then LINC00667 up-regulated pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 1 (PDK1) to promote CCA development by inhibiting miR-200c-3p. These findings identified a pivotal role of LINC00667 in tumorigenesis and development of CCA. Targeting the YY1/LINC00667/miR-200c-3p/PDK1 axis may provide a new therapeutic strategy for CCA treatment.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has been testified to influence the initiation and evolution of sundry carcinomas. Recently, lncRNA FOXD2 adjacent opposite strand RNA 1 (FOXD2-AS1) has been found to display vital regulating functions in various cancers. qRT-PCR was used to verify the dysregulation of FOXD2-AS1 expression in CCA cells and tissues, and the correlation of FOXD2-AS1 expression with clinicopathological characteristics was investigated. The viability, migration, and invasion of CCA cells were verified through CCK-8 assay, colony formation experiment, wound healing assay, and transwell assay. The regulatory networks of FOXD2-AS1 were analyzed by Bioinformatic prediction and dual-luciferase reporter assay. We discovered that FOXD2-AS1 was significantly upregulated in CCA and its up-regulation was closely correlated with terminal TNM stage, lymph node metastasis and poor survival in the current research. In addition, it was revealed that FOXD2-AS1 was an independent prognostic factor. Functional tests uncovered that the cell viability, migration, and invasion could be restrained through downregulating the expression of FOXD2-AS1, while FOXD2-AS1 overexpression could facilitate the cell viability, migration, and invasion. Mechanistically, FOXD2-AS1 was founded to interact directly with miR-760 and the oncogene E2F3 was the downstream target of miR-760 through bioinformatic prediction and dual-luciferase reporter assays. Finally, we testified that FOXD2-AS1 could competitively sponge miR-760 and further upregulated the E2F3 expression to play a vital part in cholangiocarcinoma. This research revealed that lncRNA FOXD2-AS1 could enhance CCA malignant progression through regulating the miR-760/E2F3 axis and was expected to be a prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for cholangiocarcinoma.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a group of RNAs over 200 nucleotides in length involved in diverse processes in tumor cells including proliferation, invasion and apoptosis. Given these facts, it is hardly accidental that variations in the expression of some lncRNAs have been found to be closely related to carcinogenesis and tumor growth and metastasis. HOTAIRM1, first discovered as an important factor for granulocytic differentiation in NB4 promyelocytic leukemia, has been shown to be a salient cancer-related lncRNA abnormally expressed in a variety of tumors. In this review, we summarize current evidence on the critical role of HOTAIRM1 in human malignancy, its potential mechanism of action and future use in the development of effective therapeutics.

Emerging evidence has revealed markedly roles for long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in various cancer processes. Prostate cancer associated transcript 6 (PCAT6) is a novel lncRNA which displays vital regulatory functions in multiple cancers. However, the functions of PCAT6 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain unclear. Our study confirmed that PCAT6 expression was upregulated in PDAC and the expression of PCAT6 was related to TNM stage, lymph node invasion and overall survival of PDAC patients. PCAT6 might act as an effective tumor biomarker for PDAC patients. Moreover, knockdown of PCAT6 inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion of PDAC in vitro. For the mechanism, miR-185-5p expression was decreased and chromobox 2 (CBX2) expression was increased in PDAC, and further PCAT6 could upregulated the expression of oncogene CBX2 by sponging miR-185-5p. The results above suggested that PCAT6/miR-185-5p/CBX2 exerted crucial functions in tumorigenesis and progression of PDAC.

Objectives Hypoxia is a hallmark of the tumor microenvironment, and hypoxia regions are frequently found in gastrointestinal cancers, which are associated with worse patients’ survival and therapy resistance. However, the potential mechanisms of hypoxic tumor microenvironment still need to be further elucidated, especially about the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in hypoxic tumor regions. In recent years, a great mount of independent research showed that many lncRNAs were modulated by hypoxia, and these lncRNAs were named as “hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs”. In this review, the recent developments in the expression, regulation and functions of hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs in gastrointestinal cancers were summarized. Materials and methods In this review, we summarized and figured out recent studies concerning the expression and biological mechanisms of hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs in gastrointestinal cancers. The related studies were obtained through a systematic search of PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library. Results Hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs have various roles in the regulation of metabolism, autophagy, invasion and metastasis in the hypoxic microenvironment. More importantly, hypoxic-regulated lncRNAs have a variety of potential mechanisms in gastrointestinal tumors, including epigenetic, lncRNA-miRNA interaction, lncRNA-protein interactions. Conclusions Hypoxia-regulated lncRNAs will undoubtedly be developed as targets and promote the progress in ideal therapies for gastrointestinal cancer patients.

Introduction and objectives Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death around the world. Despite improvement in the prevention and treatment of HCC, the clinical prognosis is still poor with increasing mortality. Non-coding RNAs play pivotal roles in HCC oncogenesis, but the detailed mechanism is poorly known. Therefore, the functions and interaction of lncRNA NORAD and miR-211-5p in HCC was investigated in this study. Methods Quantitative real-time PCR method was used to analyze the expression of NORAD and miR-211-5p in clinical HCC tissues and cultured cell lines. Knockdown of NORAD and overexpression of miR-211-5p were then carried in HCC cells. Moreover, bioinformatics analysis and luciferase report assays were further employed to analyze the interaction between miR-211-5p and NORAD or FOXD1. Results Increased lncRNA NORAD and decreased miR-211-5p expression were first detected in HCC compared with the peritumorial area. Further studies showed that knockdown of NORAD or overexpression of miR-211-5p impaired the proliferation, migration and angiogenesis of HCC cells. Mechanistically, we found that NORAD functions as a sponge for miR-211-5p. Moreover, it was revealed that decreased miR-211-5p induced the expression of FOXD1 as well as its downstream target VEGF-A, thereby contributes to enhanced angiogenesis of HCC. Conclusion Elevated NORAD works as a sponge for miR-211-5p in HCC, thus release the inhibition effect of the latter on its downstream target FOXD1 and VEGF-A, which finally promotes angiogenesis. These results provide new insights into the interaction between NORAD and miR-211-5p in HCC and their potential usage as targets for the development of novel therapeutics against HCC.