LncRNA ANRIL regulates AML development through modulating the glucose metabolism pathway of AdipoR1/AMPK/SIRT1

The long noncoding RNA ANRIL has been found to be abnormally expressed and play important roles in different cancers. However, the expression and function of ANRIL in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remain to be declared. In this study, we found that ANRIL is up-regulated in AML patients at diagnosis and down-regulated in patients after complete remission (CR). Functional studies showed that knockdown of ANRIL expression resulted in a decline in glucose uptake and inhibition of AML cell maintenance in vitro and in vivo. Mechanically, ANRIL was found to repress the expression of Adiponectin receptor (AdipoR1), a key regulator of glucose metabolism. Both ANRIL and AdipoR1 knockdown reduced the expression levels of phosphorylation of AMPK and SIRT1, implying a previously unappreciated ANRIL-AdipoR1-AMPK/SIRT1 signaling pathway in regulating cell glucose metabolism and survival in AML. The study is the first to demonstrate that ANRIL promotes malignant cell survival and cell glucose metabolism to accelerate AML progression and is a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target in AML treatment. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12943-018-0879-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.