A novel long non-coding RNA linc-ZNF469-3promotes lung metastasis through miR-574-5p-ZEB1axis in triple negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients usually lead to poor prognosis and survival because of metastasis. The major sites for TNBC metastasis include the lungs, brain, liver, and bone. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-protein-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides and have been reported as important regulators in BC metastasis. However, the underlying mechanisms for lncRNAs regulating TNBC metastasis are not fully understood. Here we found that linc-ZNF469-3was highly expressed in lung-metastatic LM2-4175 TNBC cells and overexpression of linc-ZNF469-3enhanced invasion ability and stemness properties in vitro and lung metastasis in vivo. Furthermore, we found linc-ZNF469-3physically interacted with miR-574-5pand overexpression of miR-574-5pattenuated ZEB1expression. Importantly, endogenous high expressions of linc-ZNF469-3and ZEB1were correlated with tumor recurrence in TNBC patients with lung metastasis. Taken together, our findings suggested that linc-ZNF469-3promotes lung metastasis of TNBC through miR-574-5p-ZEB1signaling axis and may be used as potential prognostic marker for TNBC patients.