Clinical Significance of Long Intergenic Noncoding RNA-p21 in Colorectal Cancer

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been shown to be novel regulators for both transcription and posttranscriptional/translation. One of them, lincRNA-p21, was regulated by p53 and contributed to apoptosis in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. However, the impact of such regulation on colorectal cancer (CRC) remains to be determined.

Now, researchers at the Stony Brook University have discovered that the expression level of lincRNA-p21 is increased by elevated wild-type p53 induced by nutlin-3 in HCT-116 colon cancer cells. The expression level of lincRNA-p21 was significantly (P = .0208) lower in CRC tumor tissue when compared with the paired normal tissue from the same patient. There was no significant correlation of lincRNA-p21 with p53 status (wild-type vs. mutant). Tumors in the rectum showed a higher level of lincRNA-p21 than tumors in the colon. In addition, lincRNA-p21 in patients with stage III tumors was significantly higher than in those with stage I tumors. Elevated levels of lincRNA-p21 were significantly associated with higher pT and vascular invasion.

These results indicate that lincRNA-p21 may contribute to CRC disease progression.

• Zhai H, Fesler A, Schee K, Fodstad O, Flatmark K, Ju J. (2013) Clinical Significance of Long Intergenic Noncoding RNA-p21 in Colorectal Cancer. Clin Colorectal Cancer [Epub ahead of print]. [abstract]