Background
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a common malignant gastrointestinal tumor and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world [
1,
2]. During the past decades, CRC has already become the most rapidly increasing occurrence rate and death rate disease in the worldwide [
2]. Patients are often diagnosed at advanced stages with regional node metastasis or liver metastasis [
3], eventually lead to a poor prognosis [
4]. Furthermore, dissatisfactory response to regulatory chemotherapy remains a major challenge to CRC treatment [
5]. Therefore, it is imperative to clarify the underlying molecular mechanism during CRC progression.
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a typically class of transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides without protein-coding potential. Emerging evidence confirms the regulatory roles of lncRNAs in gene expression [
6]. Moreover, lncRNAs participate in biological procession and the pathological progression, including tumorigenesis and malignant behavior [
7]. By binding to the associated gene of cancer, lncRNA functions as oncogene or tumor suppressor in human cancer. With the development of next generation sequencing, linc01296 is recognized as a predictor of CRC prognostic [
8] and facilitates prostate cancer cell proliferation and metastasis [
9]. According to our microarray analysis, we focus on linc01296, a subset of lncRNA which may interact with the target miRNA via complementary sequence and function as a miRNA sponge. Consequently, miRNAs further affect the downstream protein-coding genes by binding to its 3’-UTR. Recent studies have identified that miR-26a confines epithelial-mesenchymal transition in human hepatocellular carcinoma [
10]. SNHG6–003, functions as a competitive endogenous RNA, effectively sponges miR-26a/b and modulates TAK1 expression [
11]. However, it is still unclear that whether linc01296 and miR-26a play a modulatory role in this manner of CRC progression.
Glycosylation exists widely in cell biological procession.
O-glycosylation is essential for diverse biologic procession. However, abnormal
O-glycosylation induces invasion, metastasis and recurrence of tumor [
12]. The UDP-N-acetyl-α-D-galactosamine: poly peptide-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase family catalyzes the initial
O-linked glycosylation [
13]. As a member of this family, GALNT2 is identified as an important regulator in hepatocelluar carcinoma [
14] and oral carcinoma [
15]. Abberant expression of GALNT3 contributes to tumor progression of lung cancer [
16], gastric carcinoma [
17] and CRC [
18]. GALNT6 exhibits a critical role in the procession of breast cancer [
19]. Moreover, the GALNT family catalyzes the active polypeptide during the formation of
O-glycosylation on various proteins, including mucins [
20]. Mucins are transmembrane glycoproteins majorly on the glandular or luminal epithelial cell surface, which carries plenty of
O-linked glycans. Mucin1 (MUC1) exists as a heterodimeric transmembrane protein, and the aberrantly expression engages in the multiple disease evolution, including tumorigenesis. Abnormal MUC1 showed closely association with pancreatic cancer progression [
21]. MUC1 was also identified as a pivotal issue for liver metastasis of CRC [
22]. An overall perspective showed that GALNT3 functioned as the key enzyme catalyzed the
O-glycosylated MUC1 in epithelial ovarian cancer progression [
23]. However, the exactly molecular mechanism that linc01296/miR-26a/GALNT3 crosstalk mediated the CRC progression and clinical prognosis, via modifying
O-glycosylated MUC1, remained unknown.
In the present study, the association of upregulated linc01296 and CRC progression was examined. Linc01296 was evaluated as a molecular sponge for miR-26a, and these ncRNAs further regulated GALNT3 expression. Mechanically, the O-glycosylated MUC1, mediated by linc01296/miR-26a/GALNT3 regulatory network, was further explored as the trigger of downstream PI3K/AKT signaling cascade.
Methods
Samples from CRC patients
A total of 36 previously diagnostic CRC patients who received surgical operation at the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University were included. CRC patients accepted informed consent, which was approved by the Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University (YJ-KY-FB-2016-16). In accordance with the International Union against Cancer (UICC), the samples were identified CRC tissues and nontumor tissues, and further identified different stages (stageI, II, III and IV) based on the histopathological evaluation. The samples were maintained in liquid nitrogen.
Parental CRC cell culture
The human CRC cell lines SW620, SW480, HCT-8, 5-FU-resistant HCT-8 cells (HCT-8/5-FU) and LoVo were obtained from KeygenBiotech Co. Ltd. (Nanjing, China), which was recently authenticated as truly CRC cell lines. SW620 and SW480 were cultured in Leibovitz’s L-15 (Gibco, Grand Island, NY) medium contained 10% in activated fetal bovine serum (Gibco, Grand Island, NY). 5-FU was added to LoVo cell culture in stepwise increasing concentrations for over 6 months, namely LoVo/5-FU. HCT-8/5-FU and LoVo/5-FU were maintained in RPMI1640 supplementd with 114.7 μM and 107.0 μM 5-FU, respectively. CRC cells were incubated at 37 °C containing 5%CO2. All cells lines were routinely tested for mycoplasma, which were shown to be negative.
Real-time PCR analysis
Total RNA was extracted by RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA), and cDNA was then synthesized by QuantiTect Reverse Transcription Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). The qRT-PCR was performed under an ABI Prism7500 fast real-time PCR system with mixing a QuantiTect SYBR Green PCR Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). Relative RNA expression was calculated by ΔΔCt method with normalization to U6. The primers for GALNT3 are F: 5’-AAAGCGTTGGTCAGCCTCTATGTC-3′ and R: 5’-TGGATGTTGTGCCGAATTTCA-3′, and the primers for GAPDH were F: 5’-CTCCTCCACCTTTGACGCTG-3′ and R: 5’-TCCTCTTGTGCTCTTGCTGG-3′.
Western blot analysis
Cell protein was collected by RIPA lysis buffer (KeyGEN, Nanjing, China) containing 1 nM PMSF (Biotool, Houston, TX, USA). 20 μg protein per well was electrophorsed in 10% SDS-PAGE gels and then transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes (Millipore, Bedford, MA, USA), and incubated with different primary antibodies, including GALNT3 (16716–1-AP, Proteintech, China), caspase3 (ab13847, Abcam, the UK), cleaved caspase3 (ab13585, Abcam, the UK), PARP (ab74290, Abcam, the UK), cleaved PARP (ab4830, Abcam, the UK), MUC1 (ab15481, Abcam, the UK), PI3K-p110α (21890–1-AP, Proteintech, China), p-AKT 308 (AP3743a, Abgent, China), p-AKT 473 (AP3434a, Abgent, China), AKT (ab8805, Abcam, the UK), NF-κB (AP50006, Abgent, China) and GAPDH (AP7873a, Abgent, China), at 4 °C overnight. The membrane was treated with anti-rabbit IgG at 37 °C for 2 h. All bands were detected by an ECL Western blot kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) and analyzed by Lab Works (TM ver4.6, UVP, Bio Imaging Systems, NY, USA). GAPDH was used as control.
Cell transfection
PCR production of GALNT3 ampliation was cloned into pmirGLO vector (Promega). MiR-26a mimic, inhibitor and miR-NC were synthesized by GenePharma Co.Ltd. (Suzhou, China). Linc01296 pcDNA3.1 vector (linc01296), LV-NC, LV-linc01296, silinc01296, shlinc01296, siSCR and shSCR were obtained from GenePharma Co.Ltd. (Suzhou, China). The transfection assay was conducted with Lipofectamine 3000 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). The transfected efficiency was measured by qRT-PCR.
Dual luciferase reporter gene assay
A pmirGLO Dual-Luciferase miRNA Target Expression Vector was purchased from GenePharma Co.Ltd. (Suzhou, China). Firefly luciferase functioned as primary reporter to regulate mRNA expression, and renilla luciferase was used as a normalized control. Co-transfection was conducted and the dual luciferase reporter assay system (Promega) was utilized. The mean luciferase intensity was normalized to renilla luciferase. Data were shown as the mean value ± SD and each experiment was performed thrice.
Cell viability assay
Cell proliferation assay was conducted by using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8; Dojindo, Japan). Cells (1 × 103 per well) were plated into 96-well plate with the corresponding medium. 11 μL CCK8 were added for 4 h. The spectrometric absorbance was measured by microplate reader (Model 680; Bio-199 Rad, Hercules, CA, USA) at 490 nm.
The chemoresistance to 5-FU was detected by CCK-8. Different concentration of 5-FU was added into 96-well plate. The absorbance was then measured to evaluate the chemoresistance to 5-FU. Each experiment was performed thrice.
Single-cell suspension was obtained and then seeded in 6-well plate (1 × 103 per well). The medium was changed every 4 days. Twenty-one days later, the foci were formed obviously. The colonies were fixed by 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min, and then stained with 0.2% crystal violet. The colonies were photographed and counted.
Transwell assay
Cells were cultured in Boyden chambers containing a transwell membrane filter (Corning, New York, USA), and in serum-free medium overnight. Gelatin and matrigel were used to coat the filter, and 5 × 104 cells were suspended on top. On the other side, L-15 with 10%FBS was put in the lower part of the chamber. The upper side cells were removed by a cotton swab. The invading cells were counted to estimate the invasive capacity.
Flow cytometry
CRC cells were incubated with different concentration of 5-FU for 48 h. 2 × 103 cells were collected and resuspended in 100 μL binding buffer. Annexin V and propidium iodide (BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) were used to stain for 10 min avoiding light and 400 μL binding buffer was added into the cell suspension. The apoptotic cells were detected by FACS Calibur (Becton-Dickinson, CA, USA).
Cells with corresponding treatment were collected (5 × 105). After incubation with 5%BSA, the cells were incubated with FITC-VVA (Vector Laboratories Inc., Burlingame, CA, USA) for 60 min. The FITC fluorescence intensity was detected by FACS Calibur.
Immunofluorescence staining
CRC cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 20 min and treated with 0.2% Triton X-100 for 3 min. After incubation with 5% BSA, the primary antibody was added overnight at 4 °C, and the secondary antibody was treated. The cells were stained by 4, 6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI, Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, MO, USA) for nuclear staining. The pictures were obtained with fluorescence microscope (OLYPAS).
Immunohistochemistry staining
Human CRC samples and xenograft tumors were performed on paraffin-embedded sections. The slides were treated with drying, deparaffining and rehydrating. The slides were immersed with 3% hydrogen peroxide and labeled with antibodies overnight. The slides were stained with the secondary streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase-conjugated antibody (Santa Cruz Biotech, Santa Cruz, CA). The slides were then counterstained with hematoxylin for 30s and cover slipped.
TUNEL assay
TUNEL assay was carried out to measure the fragmented DNA of apoptotic cells. Apoptotic cells were fixed by 4% formaldehyde for 25 min, and permeabilized by 0.2% TritonX-100 for 5 min. Then the cells were equilibrated with 100 μL Equilibration buffer for 10 min. Cells were labeled with 50 μL TdT reaction mix at 37 °C. SSC buffer was used to stop the reaction. The images were pictured by fluorescence microscopy.
Mitochondrial membrane potential detection (JC-1)
JC-1 (5, 5, 6, 6-tetrachloro-1, 1, 3, 3-tetraethylbenzimidazolylcarbocyanineiodide, KeyGen, China) was used to measure the variation of mitochondrial membrane potential. The cells were stained with 5 μM JC-1 for 30 min at 37 °C and pictured with the fluorescence microscopy.
RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay
The Magna RIPTM RNA Binding Protein Immunoprecipitation Kit (Millipore, USA) was used to conduct RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay. The endogenous miR-26a which combined with linc01296 was pulled down. The cell lysis were incubated in RIP immunoprecipitation buffer containing magnetic bead conjugated with human anti-Ago2 antibody (Millipore). The protein was digested by proteinase K to obtain the immunoprecipitated RNA. The qRT-PCR assay was conducted to detect the purified RNA concentration.
Lectin pull-down assay
The cells were lysed and the extracts were treated with 50 μl VVA-agarose at 4 °C with gentle rotation for 16 h. Then the samples were washed by the eluting solution and further suffered the western blot analysis.
In vivo experiments
The experiments were approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Dalian Medical University, China. No blinding of experiment groups was conducted. The 4-week-old male nude mice were obtained from the the Model Animal Research Institute of Nanjing University.
Liver metastasis model was built as follows. Four-week-old male nude mice were randomly used to build the liver metastasis model under anesthetizing (n = 6 animals per group). For randomization, the nude mice was then numbered, which further chosen for each group. The endpoints of in vivo metastasis experiments were based on the presence of clinical signs of liver metastasis, weight loss, the appearance of ascites and energielos with reduced action. Animals were culled with the above signs or 28 days after surgery based on specific experimental designs. The spleen was exposed and injected with 5 × 106 CRC cell, and this procession sustained at least 5 min. The wound was sutured carefully. The nude mice were sacrificed 28 days later, and the liver and the spleen were collected and photographed.
Xenografts model was established as follows. 1 × 107 GFP labelled CRC cells were injected subcutaneously into the right flank of each nude mouse, respectively. The mouse were randomly divided into control and treatment groups (n = 6 animals per group) when the mice bearing palpable tumors. The groups received DMSO, 5-FU or LY294002, respectively. The endpoints of in vivo xenografts experiments were based on the presence of weight loss, tumor volume higher than 4cm3 and energielos with reduced action. Animals are humanely culled with the above signs or 21 days after surgery based on specific experimental designs. Twenty-one days later, the X-Ray photo and fluorescent photo were captured to reveal the tumor volume in vivo. The photos were taken by in-vivo Imaging System of Dalian Medical University. Then the mice were humanely killed and the tumors were isolated, measured and photographed. The tumor weight and volume was recorded, and under two-tailed Student’s t test statistical analysis. The experiments were approved by the Committee on the Ethics of Animal Experiments of the Dalian Medical University, China.
Statistical analysis
SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the experimental data. Data were presented as means ± standard deviation (SD), and each experiment was carried out thrice at least. Student’s t-test was used to compare the significant difference of two groups. Standard deviation (SD) represented the variation of data values. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the significant difference of multiple groups. The survival curves were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference was assessed by a log-rank test. Spearman’s correlation analysis was used to identify the association between miRNAs and mRNA expression. Statistical significance was defined as P value < 0.05.
Discussion
CRC patients often diagnosed with metastasis, which led to the poor clinical prognosis. Chemotherapy resistance to 5-FU often resulted in the treatment failure of CRC patients. Abnormal O-glycosylation exerted promising potential for CRC progression. This study provided us depth clarification into the potential mechanism that ncRNAs-GALNT3-MUC1 network modulated the CRC progression via PI3K/AKT pathway.
Dysregulation of lncRNAs often lead to the tumorigenesis and the malignant progression. Linc01296 is verified as key regulator in a variety of human tumors. Overexpression of linc01296 facilitates the progression of CRC [
8]. During the proliferation and metastasis of prostate cancer, upregulation of linc01296 also presented potential effect to promote the procession [
9]. High Linc01296 was confirmed as a promoted factor, and induced the malignant behaviour of bladder cancer [
25]. In accordance with our study, linc01296 was overexpressed in CRC tissues and cell lines. High linc01296 level exhibited closely association with CRC prognostic, which also modulated CRC progression. The malignancy of CRC cell lines was reversed by knocking down linc01296. Our results indicated that linc01296 might function as potential therapy target of CRC.
Competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) was reported that formed a large-scale regulatory network across the transcriptome. LncRNAs modulated the genetic message by using miRNA response elements. The functional genetic information of human genome was largely expanded. CeRNA molecular mechanism involved in the procession of many diseases. H19 and HULC sponged let-7a/let-7b and miR-372/miR-373 to further regulate IL-6 and CXCR4 via ceRNA patterns in cholangiocarcinoma [
26]. In renal cancer, lncARSR was confirmed by binding miR-34/miR-449, in a ceRNA modulation manner, further affected AXL and c-MET level [
27]. As a sponge of SNHG6–003, miR-26a also regulated hepatocelluar carcinoma as ceRNA manner [
11]. The molecular mechanism was further expounded of our research, indicated that linc01296 acted as a ceRNA of miR-26a. MiR-26a exhibited a repressive potential in hepatocellular carcinoma progression [
28]. Down-regulation of miR-26a also correlated with the malignant procession of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [
29]. In our previous study, we systematically proved the significant role of miR-26a in colorectal cancer aggressiveness [
30]. In this research, we clarified the ceRNA mechanism between linc01296 and miR-26a. MiR-26a was collaborated as a direct target of linc01296 by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. RIP assay was proved that miR-26a exhibited the endogenous interaction with linc01296 by utilizing the Ago2 antibody in CRC cell lines. Co-transfection of linc01296 and miR-26a both impacted CRC malignancy. Up regulation of linc01296 promoted CRC progression, while miR-26a played an inhibitory role to CRC progression. Interestingly, miR-26a could effectively reversed the facilitation to CRC. Functionally, miR-26a was found to be involved in the development of CRC through repressing linc01296 function both in vitro and in vivo. A closely association between linc01296 and miR-26a was identified and further modulated CRC progression.
O-linked glycosylation has been reported in the formation of tumor cell-surface, which is also very important during tumor occurrence and procession.
O-linked glycans facilitate the interaction with tumor cells and normal cells [
31]. Benzyl-α-GalNAc is common
O-glycosylation inhibitor, which could effectively reduce mucin expression of cell surface but show no impacts on cell dynamics. During pancreatic cancer progression, mucin induced the limits of 5-FU therapy, which could by reversed by Benzyl-α-GalNAc [
32]. Aberrant
O-glycans indeed involved in tumor procession, which was regarded as potential therapeutic target of cancer. In pancreatic cancer, GALNT3 also play an indispensable role to facilitate tumor cell proliferation [
33]. GALNT3 is predicted as an independent prognostic factor in ovarian cancer, via
O-glycosylation of MUC1 protein on tumor cell surface [
23]. The oncogenic potential of MUC1 has been fully illustrated in the previous study [
21‐
23]. However, the exactly mechanism that the
O-glycosylated MUC1, modified by GALNT3, influenced the CRC malignant behavior has not been demonstrated yet. Based on our work, upregulated GALNT3 was detected in CRC tissues and cell lines. GALNT3 was also validated as a direct target of miR-26a. Alteration of miR-26a obviously influenced GALNT3 level in CRC cell lines. Differential GALNT3 expression induced proliferation, aggressiveness, oncogenesis and chemoresistance both in vitro and in vivo. GALNT3 also revealed positive correlation with CRC malignancy. With the direct mediation of linc01296 and miR-26a, GALNT3 also exhibited a regulatory role in CRC malignancy. The altered VVA level indicated that GALNT3 modified
O-glycosylation, emerging as the pivotal issue during CRC progression. The internal mechanism was further expounded, VVA binding MUC1 protein was altered in accompany with the GALNT3 level. The direct association between GALNT3 and
O-glycosylated MUC1 was clarified. Logically, the downstream was further studied to illustrate the complete mechanism of CRC procession.
As a key oncogentic signaling pathway, PI3K/AKT pathway plays a pivotal role in various cancers, including breast cancer [
34], colorectal cancer [
35], hepatocellular carcinoma [
36] and chronic lymphocytic leukemia [
37]. More researchers clarify the molecular mechanism involved in proliferation, metastasis and chemoresistance both in vitro and in vivo [
38,
39]. Although the involvement of PI3K/AKT pathway in CRC has been declared,
O-glycosylated MUC1 mediated the signaling cascade has not been fully explained so far. Blocking MUC1 proteins decreased the main molecules levels of the pathway, indicating the indispensable effect of MUC1 on activating the cascade. Treatment with VVA, the pathway was further inhibited.
O-glycosylated MUC1 was confirmed as the critical modulator of PI3K/AKT pathway. In accordance with the effect of MUC1, GALNT3 level also influenced the activation of the cascade. Altered linc01296 and miR-26a could effectively influence the expression of PI3K/AKT pathway molecules. Our data showed that the linc01296/miR-26a/GALNT3/
O-glycosylated MUC1 regulatory network might be the possible mechanism involved in CRC development. Moreover, our results also confirmed the altered linc01296 could obviously change the liver metastatic degree in vivo. Combination of 5-FU and LY294002 could significantly attenuate the CRC tumor growth by in-situ observation. These results further revealed that linc01296/miR-26a/
O-glycosylated MUC1 regulatory crosstalk might postpone CRC progression through PI3K/AKT pathway, which offered a promising therapy target for CRC patients.
In summary, our present research provided convincing evidence that linc01296/miR-26a axis regulated GALNT3 expression, and further modified
O-glycosylation of CRC cells (Additional file
1: Figure S1). The regulatory linc01296/miR-26a/GALNT3/MUC1 crosstalk activated PI3K/AKT cascade during CRC procession. However, the mechanisms involved in metastasis and chemoresistance remained challenging issue of CRC clinical therapy. CRC evolution was still a multifactorial event and our work provided promising biomarkers for CRC diagnosis and therapeutic application.