tRF-20-S998LO9D Inhibits Endometrial Carcinoma by Upregulating SESN2

Abstract

Aim: To explore the roles of transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) in endometrial carcinoma (EC). Materials & methods: tsRNA profiles for EC from TCGA were analyzed. The functions and mechanisms of tsRNA were explored using in vitro experiments. Results: 173 dysregulated tsRNAs were identified. After validating in EC tissues and serumal exosome samples from EC patients, a downregulated tsRNA in both EC tissues and serumal exosomes (i.e., tRF-20-S998LO9D) was observed. Exosomal tRF-20-S998LO9D had an area under the curve of 0.768. tRF-20-S998LO9D overexpression inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion and promoted apoptosis of EC cells and tRF-20-S998LO9D knockdown further confirmed its effects. Further analyses showed that tRF-20-S998LO9D upregulated SESN2 in protein levels. Conclusion: tRF-20-S998LO9D inhibits EC cells by upregulating SESN2.

Keywords::

• endometrial cancer
• small RNA
• tRNA
• tRNA-derived fragments
• tRNA halves

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/epi-2022-0349

S Zhong conceived and designed the experiments; T Qian, X Yu, A Xu and H Li performed the experiments; T Qian and W Chen analyzed the data; S Zhong and T Qian drafted the work or revised it critically for important content.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund project of Jiangsu Cancer Hospital (grant number ZJ202125), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81902725) and the Young Talents Program of Jiangsu Cancer Hospital (grant number QL201810). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Nanjing Medical University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.