Macrophage-associated lncRNA ELMO1-AS1: a novel therapeutic target and prognostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent malignant tumor. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to be abnormally expressed in many tumors and act as crucial regulators in various biological processes. However, the expression and function of the recently identified macrophage-associated lncRNA ELMO1 antisense RNA 1 (ELMO1-AS1) in HCC are unclear. METHODS: The expression of ELMO1-AS1 was determined in HCC tissues and adjacent nontumorous tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were performed to establish the correlation between the expression level and survival of HCC patients in a training set and a validation set, respectively. The overexpression experiments were also conducted to investigate the biological role of ELMO1-AS1 in HCC cells. RESULTS: We uncovered that ELMO1-AS1 was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues, and high expression of ELMO1-AS1 is correlated with optimistic treatment outcome suggesting its potential as an independent prognostic biomarker for HCC. It was also found that overexpression of ELMO1-AS1 in HCC cells suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion and engulfment and cell motility 1 (ELMO1) may be a target of ELMO1-AS1. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that macrophage-associated lncRNA ELMO1-AS1 could be a crucial regulator involved in HCC progression and considered as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for HCC.