Lncrna Wdfy3-As2 Contributes To The Emt And Metastasis In Breast Cancer

The role of TGFβ in promoting mammary cell EMT and breast cancer metastasis was well established. However, the involvement of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in this process remains elusive. Here we demonstrated that mouse lncRNA BB179049 and its human ortholog WDFY3-AS2 were significantly increased upon TGFβ-induced EMT. WDFY3-AS2 was frequently elevated in invasive, metastatic and triple-negative breast cancer. Depletion of WDFY3-AS2 abrogated TGFβ-induced EMT and breast cancer metastasis. WDFY3-AS2 positively regulates STAT3 and WDFY3 through interaction with hnRNP-R. These data indicate that WDFY3-AS2 could play a pivotal role in TGFβ-induced EMT and metastasis and serves as a critical therapeutic target in aggressive breast cancer. Citation Format: Edward Richards, Sridevi Challa, Yajuan Li, Jennifer Permuth-Wey, Marilyn Bui, Domenico Coppola, Thomas Sellers, Jin Cheng. LncRNA WDFY3-AS2 contributes to the EMT and metastasis in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 998.