Decreased expression of long non-coding RNA WT1-AS promotes cell proliferation and invasion in gastric cancer

• We identified WT1-AS as a new cancer related lncRNA WT1-AS in gastric cancer.
• WT1-AS regulated cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, migration and invasion.
• WT1-AS overexpression could decrease ERK protein phosphorylation.

Tumor recurrence and metastasis remain the major obstacles for the successful treatment of patients diagnosed with gastric cancer. In recent years, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been considered as key regulators of tumor behavior. In this study, we investigated the expression and biological role of a newly-identified cancer-related lncRNA, WT1-AS. We found that WT1-AS expression was significantly down-regulated in tumor tissues compared to matched adjacent non-tumor tissues. The WT1-AS expression level was also associated with tumor size and the clinicopathological stage. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were inhibited, and the proportion of G0/G1 cells increased when WT1-AS was ectopically-expressed in gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, ectopic expression of WT1-AS was demonstrated to inhibit tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Finally, we found that WT1-AS overexpression could decrease ERK protein phosphorylation. Our study indicates that WT1-AS is significantly down-regulated in gastric cancers and may be correlated with tumor progression.

Fig. 1. Schematic summary of the IncRNA WT1-AS on progression of gastric cancer. WT1-AS expression is down-regulated, which may be induced by radiation stress or an inflammatory reaction to pathogens. Decreased WT1-AS may increase ERK phosphorylation througha certain mechanism, and then promote gastric cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion.Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (167 K)Download as PowerPoint slide