Mechanistic study reveals that METTL3-stabilized TP73-AS1 promotes progression in hepatocellular carcinoma, suggesting new targets for diagnosis and therapy.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in the onset and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Tumor protein 73 antisense RNA 1 (TP73-AS1), a recently identified lncRNA, has been implicated in cancer occurrence, drug resistance, and prognosis; however, its function in HCC remains unclear. Here, TP73-AS1 was found to be significantly elevated in HCC. Mechanistically, METTL3-driven m6A modification enhanced TP73-AS1 stability in a YTHDF1-dependent manner. Functionally, TP73-AS1 promoted HCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, TP73-AS1 acted as a molecular sponge for hsa-miR-1233-3p, thereby increasing CTNNB1 (β-catenin) expression and activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Taken together, this study identifies TP73-AS1 as a novel oncogenic lncRNA in HCC and reveals a METTL3–m6A–YTHDF1–TP73-AS1/miR-1233-3p/CTNNB1 axis that drives tumor progression, providing potential targets for HCC diagnosis and therapy.
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Li et al. (2026) studied this question.
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