An artificial lncRNA targeting multiple miRNAs overcomes sorafenib resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Abstract

// Shuyao Tang 1 , Gang Tan 2 , Xian Jiang 1 , Peng Han 1 , Bo Zhai 2 , Xuesong Dong 1 , Haiquan Qiao 1 , Hongchi Jiang 1 , Xueying Sun 1 1 The Hepatosplenic Surgery Center, Department of General Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China 2 Department of General Surgery, the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China Correspondence to: Xueying Sun, email: kevsun88@hotmail.com , k.sun@auckland.ac.nz Keywords: sorafenib, hepatocellular carcinoma, drug resistance, LncRNA, miRNA Received: June 13, 2016      Accepted: September 21, 2016      Published: September 28, 2016 ABSTRACT Sorafenib resistance remains a major obstacle for the effective treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and a number of miRNAs contribute to this resistance. However, the regulatory networks of miRNAs are very complex, thus inhibiting a single miRNA may sequentially activate other compensatory pathways. In the present study, we generated an artificial long non-coding RNA (AlncRNA), which simultaneously targets multiple miRNAs including miR-21, miR-153, miR-216a, miR-217, miR-494 and miR-10a-5p. These miRNAs have been shown to be upregulated in sorafenib-resistant cells and participate in the mechanisms underlying sorafenib resistance. The AlncRNA contains tandem sequences of 6 copies of the complementary binding sequences to the target miRNAs and is expressed by an adenoviral vector (Ad5-AlncRNA). Infection of Ad5-AlncRNA into sorafenib-resistant HCC cells blocked the function of miRNAs, and sequentially inhibited the downregulation of PTEN and activation of AKT. Ad5-AlncRNA significantly inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of sorafenib-resistant cells and enhanced the effects of sorafenib in vitro and in animal models. Inhibition of autophagy decreased the sensitivity of sorafenib-resistant cells to Ad5-AlncRNA, while its induction had the opposite effect. These results indicate that targeting multiple miRNAs by the artificial lncRNA could be a potential promising strategy for overcoming sorafenib resistance in the treatment of HCC.