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Up-regulated lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 indicates a poor prognosis and promotes carcinogenesis of breast cancer

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Abstract

Background

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to play crucial roles in breast cancer. This study aimed to determine the clinical significance and biological functions of lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 in breast cancer.

Methods

The expression of AFAP1-AS1 in breast cancer tissue and adjacent normal tissue from 160 patients and breast cancer cell lines were determined by qRT-PCR. The clinical characteristics of patients were collected to analyse the correlation between AFAP1-AS1 expression and malignancy status. Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards model were used to analyze whether AFAP1-AS1 expression impacted prognosis. To assess the effect of AFAP1-AS1 on MCF-7 cells proliferation, cell viability, EdU incorporation and colony formation assays were conducted after AFAP1-AS1 knockdown by siRNA. The apoptosis was detected by Caspase-3 activity, cell cycle analysis, Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression. Wound scratch assay and EMT-related protein expression (E-cadherin, N-cadherin and Vimentin) were conducted to evaluate the metastasis ability. To further determine the effect of AFAP1-AS1 on AFAP1, the mRNA and protein expression of AFAP1 and subsequent actin filament integrity were measured after AFAP1-AS1 knockdown.

Results

The expression of AFAP1-AS1 was up-regulated in human breast cancer tissue and associated with malignancy status, high expression of AFAP1-AS1 had a poor prognosis in breast cancer patients. AFAP1-AS1 expression was up-regulated in 4 breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, SK-RB-3, MDA-MB-231and MDA-MB-468) compared with normal breast cell line HBL-100. MCF-7, the most up-regulation cancer cell, was used for following studies. AFAP1-AS1 knockdown can inhibit the proliferation, metastasis and promote apoptosis of MCF-7. However, the AFAP1 expression and actin filament integrity was not affected after AFAP1-AS1 knockdown.

Conclusion

Up-regulated lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 indicates a poor prognosis in breast cancer patients and regulated the breast cancer cells proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis.

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Author notes

  1. Dachang Ma and Cheng Chen contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Galactophore, The First Hospital of Lanzhou University, No. 1 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, People’s Republic of China

    Dachang Ma, Cheng Chen, Jun Wu, Honglei Wang & Duoming Wu

Authors
  1. Dachang Ma
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  2. Cheng Chen
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  3. Jun Wu
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  4. Honglei Wang
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  5. Duoming Wu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dachang Ma.

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Informed consent

All patients had signed the informed consent before surgery.

Ethics approval

Clinicopathological follow-up information from breast cancer patients was available. All clinical investigations in the present study were approved by the Human Ethics Committee in the First Hospital of Lanzhou University (Lanzhou, China) and conducted according to the principles expressed in Declaration of Helsinki.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ma, D., Chen, C., Wu, J. et al. Up-regulated lncRNA AFAP1-AS1 indicates a poor prognosis and promotes carcinogenesis of breast cancer. Breast Cancer 26, 74–83 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-018-0891-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-018-0891-3

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