Long non‐coding RNA myocardial infarction associated transcript promotes epithelial‐mesenchymal transition and is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of tongue squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Background Long non‐coding RNA myocardial infarction associated transcript (MIAT) has been suspected to be associated with poor prognosis in several malignancies. This study aims to investigate the association between MIAT expression levels and prognosis of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC). Materials and Methods Expressions of MIAT in TSCC specimens, corresponding adjacent non‐neoplastic tongue tissues, and serums collected from 116 TSCC patients were detected by Quantitative Real‐Time PCR. Then, these patients were followed up for 12 months after discharge. MIAT was suppressed and upregulated in TSCC cells, and then cell invasion and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers were analyzed. Results Myocardial infarction associated transcript expression level in TSCC specimen was upregulated compared to adjacent non‐neoplastic tongue tissue and had a significant positive association with its level in serum. MIAT levels in both TSCC specimen and serum were correlated with cervical lymph node metastasis and histological grading of TSCC patients. Results of survival analysis showed that high expression levels of MIAT in both TSCC tissues and serums indicated higher mortality and shorter survival time of TSCC patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that there was no significant difference between MIAT in TSCC specimen and serum to differentiate death and non‐death of TSCC patients. In vitro study showed that MIAT could induce invasion of TSCC cells by regulating expressions of EMT markers through activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway. Conclusion Upregulated MIAT promoted EMT of TSCC cells through activation of Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway and indicated a poor prognosis of TSCC, which may provide us a non‐invasive approach to evaluate the prognosis of TSCC.

Epigenetic Modifications in Head and Neck Cancer

“…Shen et al (2018) reported that higher expression of AC026166.2-001 suppressed cell proliferation and migration in LSCC cells, inhibited cells cycle, and supported cell apoptosis in laryngeal cancer. Also other lncRNAs are upregulated in HNSCC and may display oncogenic properties, such as ZFAS1 (Kolenda et al 2019), PVT1 (Yu et al 2018), CASC9 (Sassenberg et al 2019), TUG1 (Zhang et al 2018b), MIAT (Zhong et al 2019), SNHG20 (Wu et al 2019), or RGMB-AS (Xu and Xi 2019), or downregulated and may act as tumor suppressor genes, such as STR5-AS (Wang et al 2019a), C5orf66-AS1 (Lu et al 2018), AC012456.4 (Hu et al 2018b), LINC01133 (Kong et al 2018), ZNF667, and ZNF667-AS1 (Meng et al 2019).…”

Clinicopathological and Prognostic Significance of Long Non-coding RNA MIAT in Human Cancers: A Review and Meta-Analysis

“…In this meta-analysis, 21 studies (Lai et al, 2017 ; Fu et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Li et al, 2018b , 2020a , b ; Qu et al, 2018 ; Sha et al, 2018 ; Shao et al, 2018 ; Lin et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019a , b ; Zhang et al, 2019 , 2020b ; Zhao et al, 2019 ; Zhong et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ; Zhu et al, 2020 ) were selected from 240 articles initially searched. Figure 1 shows our screening process and results, according to the PRISMA guidelines.…”

“…The enrolled studies were composed of 14 types of cancers, including breast cancer ( n = 1) (Li et al, 2020a ), cervical cancer ( n = 2) (Liu et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020b ), renal cell carcinoma ( n = 1) (Qu et al, 2018 ), gastric cancer ( n = 2) (Sha et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2020 ), leukemia ( n = 1) (Wang et al, 2019a ), lung cancer ( n = 6) (Lai et al, 2017 ; Fu et al, 2018 ; Lin et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2020b ; Wu et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ), melanoma ( n = 1) (Zhu et al, 2020 ), multiple myeloma ( n = 1) (Fu et al, 2019 ), osteosarcoma ( n = 1) (Zhang et al, 2019 ), ovarian cancer ( n = 1) (Shao et al, 2018 ), pancreatic cancer ( n = 1) (Li et al, 2018b ), papillary thyroid cancer ( n = 1) (Wang et al, 2019b ), tongue squamous cell carcinoma ( n = 1) (Zhong et al, 2019 ), and Wilms' tumor ( n = 1) (Zhao et al, 2019 ). OS was reckoned as a survival outcome, referring to 67% (14/21) among these studies.…”

“…Figure 2 presents the association between OS and MIAT. There were 14 studies (Fu et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Li et al, 2018b , 2020a ; Qu et al, 2018 ; Shao et al, 2018 ; Lin et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2019a ; Zhao et al, 2019 ; Zhong et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Wu et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ), consisting of 1,578 patients who claimed a connection between the OS of cancer patients and MIAT expression levels. The fixed effect model was applied ( I 2 = 0.0%, PQ = 0.889).…”

“…In recent years, accumulating studies have demonstrated aberrant expression of lncRNA MIAT in many cancers, including breast cancer (Li et al, 2020a ), cervical cancer (Liu et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020b ), renal cell carcinoma (Qu et al, 2018 ), gastric cancer (Sha et al, 2018 ; Xu et al, 2020 ), leukemia (Wang et al, 2019a ), lung cancer (Lai et al, 2017 ; Fu et al, 2018 ; Lin et al, 2019 ; Li et al, 2020b ; Wu et al, 2020 ; Zhou et al, 2020 ), melanoma (Zhu et al, 2020 ), myeloma (Fu et al, 2019 ), osteosarcoma (Zhang et al, 2019 ), ovarian cancer (Shao et al, 2018 ), pancreatic carcinoma (Li et al, 2018b ), papillary thyroid cancer (Wang et al, 2019b ), tongue squamous cell carcinoma (Zhong et al, 2019 ), and Wilms' tumor (Zhao et al, 2019 ). In this meta-analysis, lncRNA MIAT was upregulated in cancer tissue, except for the study by Liu et al ( 2020 ), which showed a downregulation.…”