Karolinska Institute’s researchers have found a specific connection between a protein and lncRNA (long type of non-coding RNA) molecule in liver cancer. It is found that the fat deposits of liver tumor cells can be decreased by increasing the lncRNA molecules, which stops the spread of tumor cell and let them eventually die. Researchers said that this new relation can be used in the future, to do better diagnosis and cancer treatments.
Findings May Improve Liver Cancer Diagnosis And Liver Cancer Treatment
Cells in our body are given instructions to find each cell type’s highly specialized functions by our fully developed DNA (genome). The information is usually shared by using two different types of molecules, coding RNA molecules, and noncoding RNA molecules.
Coding RNA molecules are also referred to as mRNA molecules. Its function is to encode the protein to act as different types of components, like signal transductors, structures of a cell, and enzymes. In simple words, it can be said that coding RNA molecules convert DNA to proteins. While noncoding RNA molecules do not encode proteins, or in simple words, it does not produce protein.
Considering all the RNA molecules in our body, nearly 97 percent of those RNA molecules are non-coding RNA molecules. Because of their inability to produce proteins they weren’t studied or researched in the past. RNA binding proteins are found to affect the different properties of RNA molecules. These RNA binding proteins have been seen to have a crucial effect on cancer.
Claudia Kutter, a researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institute said that they have been able to find which RNA binding protein has a high presence in liver tumor cells, by mapping the coding and noncoding part of our genome, with the help of cancer tissues donated by liver cancer patients. They were successfully able to find the interaction of these proteins with a long type of non-coding RNA or also called lncRNA. To figure out the interactions of RNA binding proteins and lncRNA with cancer cells, they made a list of approximately 2,300 RNA binding proteins in cells and tested their effect on different expression levels, and integrated various sequencing, molecular and cell-based data. High amounts of RNA binding protein, didn’t affect patient survival in 21 cancer types, importantly in HCC (Hepatocellular Carcinoma). Eventually, they were able to find 88 differentially expressed lncRNAs. Among them, four lncRNA had been found to have major effects on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), in their phenotype and transcriptome. Further investigation on RNA binding protein and lncRNA pairs showed its involvement in distinct regulatory processes. Among them, the most noticeable connection was found to be affecting lipid metabolism. The deviation of the CCT3-LINC00326 regulatory network causes low lipid accumulation and increased lipid degeneration in cellulose and reduces tumor in vivo. The RNA binding protein gene expression is found to be deviated in HCC, under normal conditions RNA binding proteins showed additional functions apart from their tasks, which can be triggered by lncRNA and affected tumor.
Jonas Norskov Sondergaard, a researcher in Kutter’s research group said that the activities involving the CCT3-LINC00326 pair can be used in liver diagnosis and prognosis. He stated this particular bonding is just the beginning of the many more bonding of RNA-binding proteins and lncRNA molecules that are yet to be found. These new findings can help in coming up with effective and new treatments like treatments that only focus on the diseased cells, by reducing the possibilities of having side effects. The recent pair that was discovered has paved a path to the development of new RNA-based treatments.
