STARD13-correlated ceRNA network inhibits EMT and metastasis of breast cancer

// Xiaoman Li 1,2,* , Lufeng Zheng 1,2,* , Feng Zhang 1,2 , Jinhang Hu 1,2 , Jinjiang Chou 1,2 , Yu Liu 3 , Yingying Xing 1,2 and Tao Xi 1,2 1 School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People′s Republic of China 2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Intervention, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People′s Republic of China 3 Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Science and Technology, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, People′s Republic of China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Tao Xi, email: // Yingying Xing, email: // Keywords : STARD13; 3′UTRs; ceRNA; breast cancer metastasis; EMT Received : December 11, 2015 Accepted : February 28, 2016 Published : March 15, 2016 Abstract Competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) network has been correlated with the initiation and development of cancer. Here, we identify CDH5, HOXD1, and HOXD10 as putative STARD13 ceRNAs and they display concordant patterns with STARD13 in different metastatic potential breast cancer cell lines and tissues. Notably, 3′UTRs of these genes suppress breast cancer metastasis via inhibiting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in vitro and in vivo , which are activated through the crosstalk between STARD13 and its ceRNAs in 3′UTR- and miRNA-dependent manners. In addition, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis reveals that mRNA level of STARD13 and its ceRNAs is remarkably associated with survival of breast cancer patients. These results suggest that 3′UTRs of CDH5, HOXD1, and HOXD10 inhibit breast cancer metastasis via serving as STARD13 ceRNAs.