Long non-coding RNA Lucat1 is a poor prognostic factor and demonstrates malignant biological behavior in clear cell renal cell carcinoma

// Haibing Xiao 1, 2 , Lin Bao 2 , Wen Xiao 2 , Hailong Ruan 2 , Zhengshuai Song 2 , Yan Qu 1 , Ke Chen 2 , Xiaoping Zhang 2 and Hongmei Yang 1 1 Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China 2 Department of Urology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China Correspondence to: Hongmei Yang, email: hyang@hust.edu.cn Xiaoping Zhang, email: xzhang@hust.edu.cn Keywords: Lucat1; EZH2; p57 Received: May 02, 2017      Accepted: July 29, 2017      Published: September 23, 2017 ABSTRACT Background: Many long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are encoded in the human genome. However, their biological functions, molecular mechanisms and prognostic values associated with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have yet to be elucidated. Methods: We screened the lncRNAs’ profile in ccRCC from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and selected Lucat1 for further study. MTS, colony formation assay and transwell assay were performed to examine the effect of Lucat1 on proliferation and metastasis of ccRCC. The Chip and Rip assay was performed to verify that Lucat1 can bind to polycomb PRC2 complex and suppress p57 expression. Results: In this study, we found that lncRNA Lucat1 expression was significantly up regulated in tumor tissues compared to matched adjacent non-tumor tissues. The Lucat1 expression level was also associated with grade, the clinical pathological stage and the survival time. Functional assays showed that Lucat1 can promote renal cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo . Further analysis showed that Lucat1 can bind to polycomb PRC2 complex and suppress p57 expression. Conclusions: Taken together, our results suggest that Lucat1, as a regulator of proliferation, may serve as a candidate prognostic biomarker and target for novel therapies in human ccRCC.