Background LncRNAs have been found to be involved in various aspects of biological processes. In this study, we aimed to uncover the molecular mechanisms of lncRNA EPB41L4A-AS1 in regulating glycolysis and glutaminolysis in cancer cells. Methods The expression of EPB41L4A-AS1 in cancer patients was analyzed in TCGA and GEO datasets. The level of cellular metabolism was determined by extracellular flux analyzer. The relationship between p53 and EPB41L4A-AS1 was explored by qRT-PCR, luciferase assay and ChIP assay. The interactions between EPB41L4A-AS1 and HDAC2 or NPM1 were determined by RNA immunoprecipitation, RNA pull-down assay and RNA-FISH- immunofluorescence. Findings EPB41L4A-AS1 was a p53-regulated gene. Low expression and deletion of lncRNA EPB41L4A-AS1 were found in a variety of human cancers and associated with poor prognosis of cancer patients. Knock down EPB41L4A-AS1 expression triggered Warburg effect, demonstrated as increased aerobic glycolysis and glutaminolysis. EPB41L4A-AS1 interacted and colocalized with HDAC2 and NPM1 in nucleolus. Silencing EPB41L4A-AS1 reduced the interaction between HDAC2 and NPM1, released HDAC2 from nucleolus and increased its distribution in nucleoplasm, enhanced HDAC2 occupation on VHL and VDAC1 promoter regions, and finally accelerated glycolysis and glutaminolysis. Depletion of EPB41L4A-AS1 increased the sensitivity of tumor to glutaminase inhibitor in tumor therapy. Interpretation EPB41L4A-AS1 functions as a repressor of the Warburg effect and plays important roles in metabolic reprogramming of cancer.

The accumulation of intracellular β-amyloid peptide (Aβ) is important pathological characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the exact underlying molecular mechanism remains to be elucidated. Here, we reported that Nuclear Paraspeckle Assembly Transcript 1 (NEAT1), a long n on-coding RNA, exhibits repressed expression in the early stage of AD and its down-regulation declines neuroglial cell mediating Aβ clearance via inhibiting expression of endocytosis-related genes. We find that NEAT1 is associated with P300/CBP complex and its inhibition affects H3K27 acetylation (H3K27Ac) and H3K27 crotonylation (H3K27Cro) located nearby to the transcription start site of many genes, including endocytosis-related genes. Interestingly, NEAT1 inhibition down-regulates H3K27Ac but up-regulates H3K27Cro through repression of acetyl-CoA generation. NEAT1 also mediates the binding between STAT3 and H3K27Ac but not H3K27Cro. Therefore, the decrease of H3K27Ac and/or the increase of H3K27Cro declines expression of multiple related genes. Collectively, this study first reveals the different roles of H3K27Ac and H3K27Cro in regulation of gene expression and provides the insight of the epigenetic regulatory mechanism of NEAT1 in gene expression and AD pathology. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00018-019-03074-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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