Cardiac hypertrophy (CH) could increase cardiac after-load and lead to heart failure. Recent studies have suggested that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) played a crucial role in the process of the cardiac hypertrophy, such as Mhrt, TERMINATOR. Some studies have further found a new interacting mechanism, competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA), of which lncRNA could interact with micro-RNAs (miRNA) and indirectly interact with mRNAs through competing interactions. However, the mechanism of ceRNA regulated by lncRNA in the CH remained unclear. In our study, we generated a global triple network containing mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA, and extracted a CH related lncRNA-mRNA network (CHLMN) through integrating the data from starbase, miRanda database and gene expression profile. Based on the ceRNA mechanism, we analyzed the characters of CHLMN and found that 3 lncRNAs (SLC26A4-AS1, RP11-344E13.3 and MAGI1-IT1) were high related to CH. We further performed cluster module analysis and random walk with restart for the CHLMN, finally 14 lncRNAs had been discovered as the potential CH related disease genes. Our results showed that lncRNA played an important role in the CH and could shed new light to the understanding underlying mechanisms of the CH.

Colon cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and has a high mortality rate. Carvacrol is a major component of oregano and thyme essential oils and shows antitumor properties. Here, we investigated the effects of carvacrol on the proliferation and apoptosis of two human colon cancer cell lines, HCT116 and LoVo, and studied the molecular mechanisms of its antitumor properties. We found that carvacrol inhibited the proliferation and migration of the two colon cancer cell lines in a concentration-dependent manner. Cell invasion was suppressed after carvacrol treatment by decreasing the expression of matrix metalloprotease-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9. Carvacrol treatment also caused cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase and decreased cyclin B1 expression. Finally, carvacrol induced cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. At the molecular level, carvacrol downregulated the expression of Bcl-2 and induced the phosphorylation of the extracellular-regulated protein kinase and protein kinase B (p-Akt). In parallel, carvacrol upregulated the expression of Bax and c-Jun N-terminal kinase. These results indicate that carvacrol might induce apoptosis in colon cancer cells through the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and the MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. Together, our results suggest that carvacrol may have therapeutic potential for the prevention and treatment of colon cancer.

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The RNA-binding protein QKI belongs to the hnRNP K-homology domain protein family, a well-known regulator of pre-mRNA alternative splicing and is associated with several neurodevelopmental disorders. Qki is found highly expressed in developing and adult hearts. By employing the human embryonic stem cell (hESC) to cardiomyocyte differentiation system and generating QKI-deficient hESCs (hESCs-QKIdel) using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, we analyze the physiological role of QKI in cardiomyocyte differentiation, maturation, and contractile function. hESCs-QKIdel largely maintain normal pluripotency and normal differentiation potential for the generation of early cardiogenic progenitors, but they fail to transition into functional cardiomyocytes. In this work, by using a series of transcriptomic, cell and biochemical analyses, and the Qki-deficient mouse model, we demonstrate that QKI is indispensable to cardiac sarcomerogenesis and cardiac function through its regulation of alternative splicing in genes involved in Z-disc formation and contractile physiology, suggesting that QKI is associated with the pathogenesis of certain forms of cardiomyopathies.

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