Padam, K.S.R., Pereira, S.D., Kumar, N.A.N. orcid.org/0000-0002-1759-1500 et al. (1 more author) (2025) Natural antisense transcript-mediated regulation of HOXA10-AS in oral squamous cell carcinoma. J Oral Pathol Med. ISSN 0904-2512
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The oncogenic role of HOXA10-AS and HOXA10 in cancer has been well documented. However, the epigenetic role of HOXA10 and the natural antisense-mediated regulation of HOXA10-AS in oral squamous cell carcinoma progression is not understood.
METHODS: A total of 35 oral squamous cell carcinoma specimens and 35 adjacent normal clinical specimens were collected and categorized on the basis of their lymph node status. HOXA10-AS and HOXA10 expression were analyzed using RT-qPCR. Methyl-capture sequencing was performed using lymph node-negative (n = 6) and lymph node-positive (n = 5) matched cases. The promoter activity of HOXA10 was determined using a luciferase assay. ChIP-qPCR was performed to determine histone mark localization in the distal promoter region of HOXA10. A protein-protein interaction network of genome-wide antisense targets was constructed using StringDB, and functional enrichment was performed using the R package ClusterProfiler. Transient siRNA-mediated transfection was performed to target specific exons of the HOXA10-AS gene, followed by subsequent cell proliferation, cell cycle, and cell migration assays and validation of cancer signaling pathways through western blotting.
RESULTS: HOXA10-AS and its antisense target HOXA10 were significantly overexpressed in the lymph node-positive samples. The transcriptionally active distal promoter of HOXA10 consists of a constitutively unmethylated CpG island region (CUR). H3K4me3, H3K27ac, and H3K27me3 histone mark deposition at the adjacent methylated loci of the distal promoter suggest the nature of euchromatin-driven regulation. Genome-wide mapping revealed 11 potential targets of HOXA10-AS. Targeted specific knockdown of HOXA10-AS exons significantly reduced the expression of HOXA10 and deregulated its downstream targets, contributing to decreased cell cycle progression and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.
CONCLUSION: HOXA10-AS regulates the expression of HOXA10 through a natural antisense-mediated mechanism and is epigenetically regulated by constitutively unmethylated marks in the distally enhancing promoter of HOXA10.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Oral Pathology & Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Keywords: | CUR; HOXA10; HOXA10‐AS; epigenetics; unmethylation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Clinical Dentistry (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2025 14:23 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2025 14:23 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/jop.13613 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:224262 |