Upregulated long noncoding RNA PANDAR predicts an unfavorable prognosis and promotes tumorigenesis in cholangiocarcinoma

Abstract

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is one of the most malignant human cancers with increasing incidence worldwide. LncRNAs have emerged as gene regulators and prognostic biomarkers in a variety of neoplasms. PANDAR, a novel cancer-related lncRNA, has been reported to be upregulated in diverse human carcinomas. In this study, we aimed to investigate the clinical significance of lncRNA PANDAR in CCA and explore its functional roles in CCA cells including cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The results showed that PANDAR was significantly upregulated in CCA tissue specimens and cell lines, and its high expression was closely associated with lymph node invasion (P=0.004), TNM stage (P=0.034) and postoperative relapse (P=0.006) in patients with CCA. Thus, overexpression of PANDAR could serve as an independent prognostic biomarker of CCA. Furthermore, silencing of PANDAR followed by siRNA significantly inhibited cell proliferation and increased apoptosis in CCA cells. In addition, suppression of PANDAR impaired migration and invasion capacity in vitro partly by affecting EMT. Overall, our findings showed that lncRNA PANDAR serves as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for CCA.

Keywords:

• cholangiocarcinoma
• lncRNA
• PANDAR
• prognosis
• tumorigenesis

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 81602088 and 81170426), Health and Family Planning Commission Research Project of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No 2016-049), Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No LBH-Z16096), Postgraduate innovative research project of Harbin Medical University (Grant Nos YJSCX2016-21HYD), Innovative Science Foundation of Harbin Medical University (Grant No 2016LCZX09) and Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (Grant Nos H201396). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.