TY - JOUR T1 - LncRNA <em>OIP5-AS1</em> is overexpressed in undifferentiated oral tumors and integrated analysis identifies as a downstream effector of stemness-associated transcription factors JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/285270 SP - 285270 AU - Ganesan Arunkumar AU - Shankar Anand AU - Partha Raksha AU - Shankar Dhamodharan AU - Harikrishnan Prasanna Srinivasa Rao AU - Shanmugam Subbiah AU - Avaniyapuram Kannan Murugan AU - Arasambattu Kannan Munirajan Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/03/19/285270.abstract N2 - Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of key cellular processes in early development and in cancer. LncRNA Oip5-as1 facilitates stem cell self-renewal in mouse by sponging mmu-miR-7 and modulating NANOG level, yet its role in cancer is less understood. We analyzed OIP5-AS1 expression in oral tumors and in TCGA datasets. We observed overexpression of OIP5-AS1 in oral tumors (P&lt;0.001) and in tumors of epithelial origin from TCGA. OIP5-AS1 expression was strongly associated with undifferentiated tumors (P=0.0038). In silico analysis showed miR-7 binding site is conserved in mouse and human OIP5-AS1. However, human NANOG 3’-UTR lost the binding site for hsa-miR-7a-3. Therefore, we screened for other miRNAs that can be sponged by OIP5-AS1 and identified six potential miRNAs and their downstream target genes. Expression analysis showed downregulation of miRNAs and upregulation of downstream target genes, particularly in undifferentiated tumors with high-level of OIP5-AS1 suggesting that OIP5-AS1 could post-transcriptionally modulate the downstream target genes. Further, systematic epigenomic analysis of OIP5-AS1 promoter revealed binding motifs for MYC, NANOG and KLF4 suggesting that OIP5-AS1 could be transactivated by stemness-associated transcription factors in cancer. Overexpression of OIP5-AS1 in undifferentiated oral tumors may confer poor prognosis through maintenance of cancer stemness. ER -