Upregulated long non-coding RNA LINC00152 expression is associated with progression and poor prognosis of tongue squamous cell carcinoma

Jianjun Yu; Yan Liu; Can Guo; Shanshan Zhang; Zhaojian Gong; Yanyan Tang; Liting Yang; Yi He; Yu Lian; Xiayu Li; Hao Deng; Qianjin Liao; Xiaoling Li; Yong Li; Guiyuan Li; Zhaoyang Zeng; Wei Xiong; Xinming Yang

doi:10.7150/jca.17510

Upregulated long non-coding RNA LINC00152 expression is associated with progression and poor prognosis of tongue squamous cell carcinoma

J Cancer. 2017 Feb 11;8(4):523-530. doi: 10.7150/jca.17510. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Jianjun Yu¹, Yan Liu², Can Guo³, Shanshan Zhang⁴, Zhaojian Gong⁵, Yanyan Tang⁶, Liting Yang⁶, Yi He², Yu Lian⁶, Xiayu Li⁷, Hao Deng⁷, Qianjin Liao⁸, Xiaoling Li⁸, Yong Li⁹, Guiyuan Li⁸, Zhaoyang Zeng³, Wei Xiong⁸, Xinming Yang¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
³ The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁴ The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁵ Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁶ The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁷ Hunan Key Laboratory of Nonresolving Inflammation and Cancer, Disease Genome Research Center, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁸ Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
⁹ The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of the Chinese Ministry of Health, Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; Department of Cancer Biology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hunan Cancer Hospital and The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China;; Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Altered expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with human carcinogenesis and might be used as diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers. However, the expression of lncRNAs in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) and their relevance on the diagnosis, progression and prognosis of TSCC have not been thoroughly elucidated. To discover novel TSCC-related lncRNAs, we analyzed the lncRNA expression patterns in two sets of previously published TSCC gene expression profile data (GSE30784 and GSE9844), and found that long intergenic non-coding RNA 152 (LINC00152) was significantly upregulated in TSCC samples. We then detected LINC00152 expression in two other cohorts of TSCC samples. Quantitative Real time PCR (qRT-PCR) results indicated that LINC00152 was highly expressed in 15 primary TSCC biopsies when compared with 14 adjacent non-tumor tongue squamous cell epithelium samples. The expression of LINC00152 was also measured in 182 paraffin-embedded human TSCC tissues by in situ hybridization, increased expression of LINC00152 was significantly correlated with TSCC progression, such as T stage (p = 0.009), N stage (p = 0.036), TNM stage (p = 0.017), and associated with relapse (p < 0.001), and invasion (p < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that increased LINC00152 expression contributed to both poor overall survival (p = 0.006) and disease-free survival (p = 0.007) of TSCC patients. These findings suggest that LINC00152 might serve as a potential biomarker for early detection and prognosis prediction of TSCC.

Keywords: Long non-coding RNA (LncRNA); long intergenic non-coding RNA 152 (LINC00152); metastasis; prognosis.; tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC).