ABSTRACT

Previous research revealed that lncRNA ZFAS1 could promote nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) by inhibiting its downstream target axis. However, the association between ZFAS1 and radioresistant NPC cells is unclear. This study aimed to explore the roles of ZFAS1 in the radioresistance of NPC. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to identify the significant factors (ENO2 and miR-7-5p) that contributed to the radioresistance of NPC cells. After performing qRT-PCR analysis, we found that the expression of ZFAS1 and ENO2 was upregulated in NPC cells but that the miR-7-5p expression was downregulated in the same samples. Apart from that, we noticed that ZFAS1 inhibition enhanced the sensitivity of NPC cells to radiation therapy by repressing cell proliferation and promoting cell apoptosis. Subsequently, we found that ZFAS1 could sponge miR-7-5p to upregulate ENO2, which was the target of miR-7-5p. Experimental results also indicated that the suppression of miR-7-5p inhibited the sensitivity of NPC cells to radiation therapy, thereby suppressing ENO2 expression. Overall, our findings suggested that ZFAS1 contributed to the radioresistance of NPC cells by regulating the miR-7-5p/ENO2 axis and that ZFAS1 might be a potential therapeutic target for addressing the radioresistance of NPC cells.

摘要

先前的研究表明，lncRNA ZFAS1 可以通过抑制其下游靶轴来促进鼻咽癌 (NPC)。然而，ZFAS1 与抗辐射 NPC 细胞之间的关联尚不清楚。本研究旨在探讨ZFAS1在NPC放射抗性中的作用。进行生物信息学分析以确定导致 NPC 细胞放射抗性的重要因素（ENO2 和 miR-7-5p）。在进行 qRT-PCR 分析后，我们发现 ZFAS1 和 ENO2 在 NPC 细胞中的表达上调，但在相同样本中 miR-7-5p 的表达下调。除此之外，我们注意到 ZFAS1 抑制通过抑制细胞增殖和促进细胞凋亡增强了 NPC 细胞对放射治疗的敏感性。随后，我们发现 ZFAS1 可以海绵 miR-7-5p 上调 ENO2，这是 miR-7-5p 的目标。实验结果还表明，miR-7-5p的抑制抑制了NPC细胞对放射治疗的敏感性，从而抑制了ENO2的表达。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，ZFAS1 通过调节 miR-7-5p/ENO2 轴促进 NPC 细胞的放射抗性，并且 ZFAS1 可能是解决 NPC 细胞放射抗性的潜在治疗靶点。