Overexpression of RALY promotes migration and predicts poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

IntroductionRALY plays a critical role in promoting invasiveness and is associated with poor prognosis in different types of cancers. However, the prognostic value of RALY and its precise role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unknown.Materials and methodsWe detected the expression of RALY in 127 clinical HCC tissue samples and seven HCC cell lines by immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting. The prognostic value of RALY expression was assessed using the Kaplan–Meier method. The expression and prognostic value of RALY were also studied by bioinformatics analysis of data from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas. The biological influence of RALY on HCC cell lines was studied using proliferation, transwell migration, and invasion assays in vitro.ResultsThe expression of RALY in HCC tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal liver tissues. Abnormally high expression of RALY was associated with tumor size (P=0.031), TNM stage (P=0.026), presurgical serum AFP levels (P=0.025), and vascular invasion (P=0.001). Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that higher expression of RALY correlated with poorer overall survival and disease-free survival in HCC patients. High RALY expression was an independent adverse prognostic factor for overall survival (HR =2.559, 95% CI: 1.710–3.827, P<0.001) and disease-free survival (HR =2.053, 95% CI: 1.384–3.047, P<0.001) in HCC. Moreover, knockdown of RALY expression using a specific shRNA suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion capabilities of HCC cells in vitro. Knockdown of RALY expression in HCC cell lines resulted in upregulation of E-cadherin and downregulation of N-cadherin, vimentin, and snail.ConclusionTaken together, our results indicate that RALY represents a biomarker for the prognosis of patients with HCC and highlight the importance of RALY as an oncogene in HCC.

The Long Non-coding RNA ZFAS1 Sponges miR-193a-3p to Modulate Hepatoblastoma Growth by Targeting RALY via HGF/c-Met Pathway

“…The oncogenic role and regulatory effects have been reported in human cancers. Recent study indicated that overexpression of RALY predicted poor prognosis and acted as an oncogene in hepatocellular carcinoma (Zhu et al, 2018). In addition, RALY acted as a RNA binding protein to modulate metastatic potential of breast cancer cells (Bondy-Chorney et al, 2017).…”

Over-expression of RALYL suppresses the progression of ovarian clear cell carcinoma through inhibiting MAPK and CDH1 signaling pathways

“…After searching protein-protein interaction database of STRING (https://string-db.org/), we found that RALYL could interact with multiple proteins, like TIGD3, RALY, RBM22, HNRNPCL1, HNRNPCL2, HNRNPC, CRNKL1, OR52N5, PNN and PPIE. RALY was up-regulated in multiple cancers, and RALY over-expression led to an aggressive biological behavior and a dismal prognosis as well as activating CDH1 signaling pathway [18][19][20]. By specific binding with RALY, RALYL could inhibit the oncogenic effects of RALY.…”

Proteomic analysis of hypopharyngeal and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma sheds light on differences in survival

“…Its role in tumorigenesis and development remains unclear. However, it has been reported as an oncogene in hepatocellular carcinoma 35 , clear cell renal cell carcinoma 36 , triple-negative breast cancer 37 , and non-small-cell lung cancer 38 . TSTA3, also known as GFUS, participates in the pathway of transporting to the Golgi apparatus as well as metabolism 39 , and is considered an oncogene in many cancers including esophageal squamous cell carcinoma 40 .…”