BackgroundSeveral of the thousands of human long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been functionally characterized, yet their potential involvement in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poorly understood.MethodsLncRNA-HOXD-AS1 was identified by microarray and validated by real-time PCR. The clinicopathological significance of HOXD-AS1 was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was conducted to examine the mechanism of HOXD-AS1 upregulation. The role of HOXD-AS1 in HCC cells was assessed both in vitro and in vivo. ceRNA function of HOXD-AS1 was evaluated by RNA immunoprecipitation and biotin-coupled miRNA pull down assays.ResultsIn this study, we found that HOXD-AS1 was significantly upregulated in HCC tissues. Clinical investigation demonstrated high expression level of HOXD-AS1 was associated with poor prognosis and high tumor node metastasis stage of HCC patients, and was an independent risk factor for survival. Moreover, our results revealed that STAT3 could specifically interact with the promoter of HOXD-AS1 and activate HOXD-AS1 transcription. Knockdown of HOXD-AS1 significantly inhibited migration and invasion of HCC cells in vitro and distant lung metastasis in vivo. Additionally, HOXD-AS1 was enriched in the cytoplasm, and shared miRNA response elements with SOX4. Overexpression of HOXD-AS1 competitively bound to miR-130a-3p that prevented SOX4 from miRNA-mediated degradation, thus activated the expression of EZH2 and MMP2 and facilitated HCC metastasis.ConclusionsIn summary, HOXD-AS1 is a prognostic marker for HCC patients and it may play a pro-metastatic role in hepatocarcinogenesis.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12943-017-0680-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Circular RNAs (circRNA) are a class of covalently closed single-stranded RNAs that have been implicated in cancer progression. Here we identify circNDUFB2 to be downregulated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues, and to negatively correlate with NSCLC malignant features. Elevated circNDUFB2 inhibits growth and metastasis of NSCLC cells. Mechanistically, circNDUFB2 functions as a scaffold to enhance the interaction between TRIM25 and IGF2BPs, a positive regulator of tumor progression and metastasis. This TRIM25/circNDUFB2/IGF2BPs ternary complex facilitates ubiquitination and degradation of IGF2BPs, with this effect enhanced by N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification of circNDUFB2. Moreover, circNDUFB2 is also recognized by RIG-I to activate RIG-I-MAVS signaling cascades and recruit immune cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME). Our data thus provide evidences that circNDUFB2 participates in the degradation of IGF2BPs and activation of anti-tumor immunity during NSCLC progression via the modulation of both protein ubiquitination and degradation, as well as cellular immune responses.