TINCR expression is associated with unfavorable prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Emerging evidence are accumulating that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have recently been identified to participate in various cellular processes. Terminal differentiation induced ncRNA (TINCR) is a newly identified lncRNA with its functional roles not fully elucidated in human malignancy. The current study aims to identify the clinical significance of TINCR in prognosis and malignant progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). TINCR expression in HCC specimens at various stages of tumorigenesis were measured by quantitative real-time RT PCR (qRT-PCR). The matched para-carcinoma tissues were used as controls. The associations of TINCR with clinicopathological characteristics, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients were further evaluated. Results revealed that high TINCR expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (P=0.005), tumor differentiation status (P=0.017), TNM stage (P=0.010), and vascular invasion (P=0.004). Moreover, Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that TINCR was correlated to both DFS and OS in HCC cohorts. Patients with high TINCR expression tended to have worse prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that TINCR was an independent poor prognostic indicator for DFS (HR =1.32, 95% CI: 1.00–1.57, P=0.000) and OS (HR =1.57, 95% CI: 1.30–1.86, P=0.004) in HCC. TINCR was demonstrated as a direct target of miR-137 and miR-133a, and was suppressed by miR-137/miR-133a. These results provide the first evidence that the expression of TINCR in HCC may play an oncogenic role in HCC differentiation, invasion, and metastasis. miR-137/miR-133a-TINCR pathway may serve as a promising target for tumor recurrence and prognosis of patients with HCC.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: lncRNA TINCR sponges miR-214-5p to upregulate ROCK1 in hepatocellular carcinoma

“…In a recent study, Zhang et al reported that miR-214-5p inhibits osteosarcoma cell proliferation by directly targeting ROCK1 [12]. TINCR has been reported to be an oncogenic lncRNA in many types of cancers including HCC [13]. Our bioinformatics analysis showed that TINCR may sponge miR-214-5p.…”

Long Non-Coding RNA SH3PXD2A-AS1 Promotes Cell Progression Partly Through Epigenetic Silencing P57 and KLF2 in Colorectal Cancer

“…Recently, dysregulation of lncRNAs has been reported to alter many biological processes, including cell cycle, proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and epigenetic regulation [8-10]. Furthermore, lncRNAs are capable of exerting oncogenic or tumor-suppressive roles, and could be considered as diagnostic or therapeutic targets for patients with cancer [11-14]. Human CRC-specific lncRNA CCAT1-L enhances MYC expression and promotes tumorigenesis in CRC [15].…”

lncRNA-TINCR Functions as a Competitive Endogenous RNA to Regulate the Migration of Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Sponging miR-761

“…Interestingly, previous research showed that TINCR exerted discrepant function in different subjects. Some researchers found that a higher TINCR level is correlated with poor survival in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), gastric cancer (GC), colorectal cancer (CRC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and breast cancer, because TINCR promotes cell apoptosis and migration [5,16,26,27]. Others reported that the overexpression of TINCR suppressed cell proliferation and invasion in lung cancer cells, tongue squamous cell carcinoma, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.…”