HOXA‑AS3 induces tumor progression through the epithelial‑mesenchymal transition pathway in epithelial ovarian cancer

Abstract

HOXA cluster antisense RNA 3 (HOXA-AS3) is considered to be involved in several malignancies, however, its biological function in the progression of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains unclear. The present study compared the expression of HOXA-AS3 in ovarian cancer and normal ovarian tissues and analyzed the association between the expression of HOXA-AS3 and the survival outcomes of patients with ovarian cancer. RNA interference was used to suppress HOXA-AS3 expression in ovarian cancer cell lines in order to demonstrate the function of HOXA-AS3 in ovarian cancer progression. The associations between HOXA-AS3 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers were explored to verify the mechanism of action of HOXA-AS3 in ovarian cancer. The results of the present study revealed that ovarian cancer tissues exhibited higher HOXA-AS3 expression than normal ovarian tissues. Clinical data indicated that HOXA-AS3 was a significant predictor of progression-free survival and overall survival. Patients with high HOXA-AS3 expression had a poorer prognosis than patients with low HOXA-AS3 expression. In vitro experiments using HOXA-AS3-knockdown ovarian cancer cell lines demonstrated that HOXA-AS3 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and migration. HOXA-AS3 was a potent inducer and modulator of the expression of EMT pathway-related markers and interacted with both the mRNA and protein forms of HOXA3. Collectively, the findings of the present study demonstrated that HOXA-AS3 expression is associated with ovarian cancer progression and thus, may be employed as a prognostic marker and therapeutic target in EOC.

LncRNA HOXA-AS3 promotes cell proliferation and invasion via targeting miR-218-5p/FOXP1 axis in osteosarcoma

“…LncRNA HOXA-AS3 was identified in pediatric gliomas as a biomarker for predicting prognosis 48 . LncRNA HOXA-AS3 regulated the EMT pathway and triggered tumor progression in epithelial ovarian cancer 49 . Moreover, lncRNA HOXA-AS3 regulated the miR-29a-3p and modulated tumor progression in cervical cancer.…”

The Role of EMT-Related lncRNAs in Ovarian Cancer

“…Liu et al suggested that LINC01215 promotes EMT-related LN metastasis through the methylation and downregulation of the RUNX3 promoter [ 85 ]. Moreover, HOXA cluster antisense RNA 3 (HOXA-AS3) overexpression has been correlated with significantly shorter PFS and OS, whereas its downregulation has been found to inhibit the EMT process in vitro [ 68 ]. Interestingly, TC0101441 levels may be a potential independent prognostic marker of OS and DFS in EOC through the downregulation of KISS1 (a metastasis suppressor gene) [ 108 ].…”

Role of HOXA1-4 in the development of genetic and malignant diseases

“…Kyung Jin Eoh et al demonstrated in their study on EOC that a high expression of HOXA-AS3 is associated with shorter OS, and overexpression of HOXA-AS3 enhances the proliferation and metastasis of EOC cells [ 179 ]. In PC, HOXA-AS3 targets miR-29c to promote the expression of CDK6, thereby stimulating the growth of PC cells [ 180 ].…”