Long noncoding RNA DANCR is activated by SALL4 and promotes the proliferation and invasion of gastric cancer cells

// Lei Pan 1, 2, * , Wei Liang 2, * , Jianmei Gu 3, * , Xueyan Zang 2 , Zhenhua Huang 2, 4 , Hui Shi 2 , Jingyan Chen 2 , Min Fu 4, 5 , Peng Zhang 2 , Xiudi Xiao 1 , Hui Qian 2 , Wenrong Xu 2 , Pengcheng Jiang 4, 5 and Xu Zhang 2, 4 1 Department of Breast Surgery, The Affiliated People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212002, China 2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Medical Science and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China 3 Department of Clinical Laboratory, Nantong Tumor Hospital, Nantong, Jiangsu 226361, China 4 Institute of Digestive Diseases, The Affiliated People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212002, China 5 Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated People’s Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212002, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xu Zhang, email: xuzhang@ujs.edu.cn Pengcheng Jiang, email: jpc18906106623@126.com Wenrong Xu, email: icls@ujs.edu.cn Keywords: gastric cancer; lncRNA; DANCR; SALL4; progression Received: August 24, 2017      Accepted: November 17, 2017      Published: December 06, 2017 ABSTRACT Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) play important roles in tumor development and progression. The expression of lncRNAs is frequently dysregulated in human cancer. DANCR (anti-differentiation noncoding RNA) is a newly identified lncRNA in human cancer, however, its functional roles and clinical value in gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the expression of DANCR in the tumor tissues and serum of GC patients and analyzed the correlation between DANCR expression levels and the clinicopathological characteristics. Our results showed that the expression of DANCR was higher in the tumor tissues than that in the adjacent non-cancerous tissues. The expression level of DANCR was also elevated in the serum of GC patients compared to that of healthy controls. The expression levels of DANCR were significantly associated with tumor size, TNM stage, lymphatic metastasis and invasion depth. DANCR knockdown inhibited the proliferation of GC cells by inducing cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis. In addition, DANCR knockdown suppressed gastric cancer growth in vivo . Moreover, DANCR knockdown inhibited the migration and invasion of GC cells via the suppression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, DANCR overexpression had the opposite effect. DANCR is activated by SALL4 in gastric cancer cells and exerted its oncogenic activities through the activation of β-catenin pathway. Taken together, our findings suggest that DANCR promotes the progression of gastric cancer and have the potential to serve as a novel diagnostic biomarker.