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Long non-coding RNA MEG3 regulates proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy and is associated with prognosis in glioma

Journal of Neuro-Oncology volume 140, pages 281–288 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Accumulating evidence indicates that dysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. LncRNA-maternally expressed gene 3 (MEG3) has been shown to be involved in the initiation and development of several cancers, including glioma. However, the clinical prognostic value of MEG3 in glioma has not yet been fully elucidated.

Methods

The expression levels of MEG3 were detected in 79 glioma tissues and adjacent normal brain tissues, as well as, glioma cells and normal human astrocytes by qRT-PCR. Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression methods were utilized for the survival analysis. MTT assay, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence assay were carried out to detect the impact of MEG3 on glioma cell proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy.

Result

The current results showed that MEG3 expression was significantly downregulated in glioma tissues and cell line and negatively correlated with WHO grade in glioma patients. Low MEG3 expression was significantly associated with the advanced WHO grade, low Karnofsky performance score (KPS), IDH wild-type, and tumor recurrence. Patients displaying a low expression of MEG3 contributed to poor overall survival. The downregulated level of MEG3, advanced WHO grade, low KPS, IDH wild-type, and tumor recurrence were independent poor prognostic indicators in glioma patients. The in vitro experiments demonstrated that the MEG3 overexpression remarkably suppressed the proliferation while facilitating apoptosis and autophagy in glioma cells.

Conclusions

These findings indicated a critical role of MEG3 in glioma cell proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy. Also, the gene was found to be significantly associated with the prognosis in glioma patients. Thus, it might provide a new target for predicting prognosis and therapeutic intervention in glioma.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Li for assistance in language editing.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Funds (No. 81470438) and Fund for the Development of Key Subjects from Xi’an Medical University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Haikang Zhao, Xin Wang and Xiaoyun Feng have contributed equally to this study.

Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Wuhan General Hospital of PLA, No. 627 Wuluo Road, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, China

    Haikang Zhao, Li Pan & Lianting Ma

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi’an Medical University, Xi’an, 710038, Shaanxi, China

    Haikang Zhao, Xiaoqiang Li, Jianrong Liu, Fenglu Wang, Zhihai Yuan & Lei Yang

  3. Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, 710038, Shaanxi, China

    Xin Wang & Xiaoyun Feng

  4. Experimental Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi’an Medical University, Xi’an, 710038, Shaanxi, China

    Jun Yu

  5. Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 277 Yanta west Road, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi, China

    Rujuan Su

  6. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Preventinon and Therapy of Cerebral Disease, Xi’an Medical University, No. 1 Xinwang Road, Xi’an, 710016, Shaanxi, China

    Yuelin Zhang

Authors
  1. Haikang Zhao
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  2. Xin Wang
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  10. Jun Yu
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  11. Rujuan Su
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Rujuan Su, Yuelin Zhang or Lianting Ma.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Wuhan General Hospital of PLA, and it complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhao, H., Wang, X., Feng, X. et al. Long non-coding RNA MEG3 regulates proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy and is associated with prognosis in glioma. J Neurooncol 140, 281–288 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-018-2874-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-018-2874-9

Keywords

  • LncRNAs
  • MEG3
  • Proliferation
  • Apoptosis
  • Autophagy
  • Prognosis
  • Glioma