TY - JOUR
T1 - Knockdown of the long noncoding RNA PURPL induces apoptosis and sensitizes liver cancer cells to doxorubicin
AU - Berhane, Tsinat
AU - Holm, Anja
AU - Karstensen, Kasper Thystrup
AU - Petri, Andreas
AU - Ilieva, Mirolyuba Simeonova
AU - Krarup, Henrik
AU - Vyberg, Mogens
AU - Løvendorf, Marianne Bengtson
AU - Kauppinen, Sakari
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer with increasing incidence in western countries. Most HCC patients have advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis due to the asymptomatic nature of early-stage HCC and do not qualify for potentially curative surgical treatment, thus, highlighting the need for new therapeutic strategies. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) comprise a large and heterogeneous group of non-protein coding transcripts that play important regulatory roles in numerous biological processes in cancer. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing of liver biopsies from ten HCC, ten hepatitis C virus-associated HCC, and four normal livers to identify dysregulated lncRNAs in HCC. We show that the lncRNA p53-upregulated-regulator-of-p53-levels (PURPL) is upregulated in HCC biopsies and that its expression is p53-dependent in liver cancer cell lines. In addition, antisense oligonucleotide-mediated knockdown of PURPL inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and sensitized HepG2 human HCC cells to treatment with the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin. In summary, our findings suggest that PURPL could serve as a new therapeutic target for reversing doxorubicin resistance in HCC.
AB - Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer with increasing incidence in western countries. Most HCC patients have advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis due to the asymptomatic nature of early-stage HCC and do not qualify for potentially curative surgical treatment, thus, highlighting the need for new therapeutic strategies. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) comprise a large and heterogeneous group of non-protein coding transcripts that play important regulatory roles in numerous biological processes in cancer. In this study, we performed RNA sequencing of liver biopsies from ten HCC, ten hepatitis C virus-associated HCC, and four normal livers to identify dysregulated lncRNAs in HCC. We show that the lncRNA p53-upregulated-regulator-of-p53-levels (PURPL) is upregulated in HCC biopsies and that its expression is p53-dependent in liver cancer cell lines. In addition, antisense oligonucleotide-mediated knockdown of PURPL inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and sensitized HepG2 human HCC cells to treatment with the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin. In summary, our findings suggest that PURPL could serve as a new therapeutic target for reversing doxorubicin resistance in HCC.
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-23802-9
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-23802-9
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 36376362
AN - SCOPUS:85141953927
VL - 12
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 19502
ER -