Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the role of FEZF1-AS1 in colon cancer and predicted the underlying mechanism. We extracted sequencing data of colon cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas database, identified the differential expression of long noncoding RNA, microRNA, and messenger RNA, constructed a competitive endogenous RNA network, and then analyzed prognosis. Then, we used the enrichment analysis databases for functional analysis. Finally, we studied the FEZF1-AS1/miR-92b-3p/ZIC5 axis. We detected the expression of FEZF1-AS1, miR-92b-3p, and ZIC5 via quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, transfected colon cancer cell RKO with lentivirus and conducted FEZF1-AS1 knockdown, and performed cancer-related functional assays. It indicated that many RNA in the competitive endogenous RNA network, such as ZIC5, were predicted to be related to overall survival of colon cancer patients, and enrichment analysis showed cancer-related signaling pathways, such as PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. The expression of FEZF1-AS1 and ZIC5 was significantly higher and that of miR-92b-3p was lower in the colon cancer than in the normal colon tissues. FEZF1-AS1 promoted the migration, proliferation, as well as invasion of RKO. According to the prediction, FEZF1-AS1 and ZIC5 might competitively bind to miR-92b-3p, leading to the weakening of the inhibitory impact of miR-92b-3p on ZIC5 and increasing expression of ZIC5, thus further activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, which led to the occurrence and development of colon cancer. The study suggested that FEZF1-AS1 might be an effective diagnosis biomarker for colon cancer.
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Data availability
The datasets for this study can be found in the TCGA. Please see https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/ for more details.
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Acknowledgements
We express our sincere gratitude to the TCGA database, RNAInter database, Starbase for data acquisition, and Cuiying Biomedical Research Center for their support of our laboratory equipment and laboratory technology.
Funding
The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81770525]; Cuiying Scientific and Technological Innovation Program of Lanzhou University Second Hospital [grant number CY2021-QN-A05]; Cuiying Scientific and Technological Key Cultivation Program of Lanzhou University Second Hospital [grant number CY2018-ZD01]; Lanzhou Science and technology project [grant number 2022-ZD-104]; Science and technology project of Gansu Province [grant number 21JR1RA148]; Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province [22JR5RA969]; and Industrial support and guidance project for institutions of higher learning in Gansu province (2019C-21).
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The original study design was undertaken by DZ, XY, and PW. Data were analyzed by XY and XM. Experiments were performed by XY, XS, ZW, and ZW. The results were analyzed by FW and XY.
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Ethical approval to the human study was provided by Lanzhou University Second Hospital medical ethics committee (APPROVAL NUMBER 2021A-468).
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Yang, X., Wu, P., Wang, Z. et al. Constructed the ceRNA network and predicted a FEZF1-AS1/miR-92b-3p/ZIC5 axis in colon cancer. Mol Cell Biochem 478, 1083–1097 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-022-04578-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-022-04578-y