Research Paper Volume 10, Issue 1 pp 56—71

NKILA inhibits NF-κB signaling and suppresses tumor metastasis

Shun Ke1, *,, Rui-chao Li2, *,, Fan-kai Meng3, , Ming-hao Fang1, ,

  • 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
  • 2 Department of General Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
  • 3 Department of Hematology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430030, China
* Equal contribution

Received: November 12, 2017       Accepted: December 17, 2017       Published: January 17, 2018      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101359
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2018 Ke et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) NKILA (nuclear transcription factor NF-κB interacting lncRNA) functions as a suppressor in human breast cancer and tongue cancer. However, the clinical significance and biological roles of NKILA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain unknown. In this study, we showed that NKILA was downregulated in ESCC tissues and cancer cells compared with their normal counterparts. Low NKILA expression correlated with large tumor size and advanced TNM stage, and predicted poor overall and disease-free survival of ESCC patients. Further loss- and gain-of-function assays indicated that NKILA inhibited proliferation and migration of ESCC cells in vitro, suppressed tumor growth and lung metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, NKILA could inhibit phosphorylation of IκBα, suppress p65 nuclear translocation and downregulate the expression of NF-κB target genes in ESCC cells. These results suggest NKILA could suppress malignant development of ESCC via abrogation of the NF-κB signaling and may potentially serve as a prognostic marker for ESCC.

Abbreviations

ESCC: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; NKILA: nuclear transcription factor NF-κB interacting lncRNA; NF-κB: Nuclear factor-κB; IκBα: inhibitor of κBα; IKK: IκBα kinase; H&E: hematoxylin and eosin.