Frontiers in Oncology (Oct 2021)

LncRNA FOXP4-AS1 Promotes Progression of Ewing Sarcoma and Is Associated With Immune Infiltrates

  • Jiachao Xiong,
  • Jiachao Xiong,
  • Liang Wu,
  • Lu Huang,
  • Chunyang Wu,
  • Zhiming Liu,
  • Wenqiang Deng,
  • Shengbiao Ma,
  • Zhenhai Zhou,
  • Honggui Yu,
  • Kai Cao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2021.718876
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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Ewing sarcoma (ES) is a highly malignant primary bone tumor with poor prognosis. Studies have shown that abnormal expression of lncRNA influences the prognosis of tumor patients. Herein, we established that FOXP4-AS1 was up-regulated in ES and this correlated with poor prognosis. Further analysis illustrated that FOXP4-AS1 down-regulation repression growth, migration, along with invasion of ES. On the contrary, up-regulation of FOXP4-AS1 promoted the growth, migration, as well as invasion of ES. To explore the mechanism of FOXP4-AS1, Spearman correlation analysis was carried out to determine genes that were remarkably linked to FOXP4-AS1 expression. The potential functions and pathways involving FOXP4-AS1 were identified by GO analysis, Hallmark gene set enrichment analysis, GSEA, and GSVA. The subcellular fractionation results illustrated that FOXP4-AS1 was primarily located in the cytoplasm of ES cells. Then a ceRNA network of FOXP4-AS1 was constructed. Analysis of the ceRNA network and GSEA yielded two candidate mRNAs for FOXP4-AS1. Results of the combined survival analysis led us to speculate that FOXP4-AS1 may affect the expression of TMPO by sponging miR-298, thereby regulating the malignant phenotype of ES. Finally, we found that FOXP4-AS1 may modulates the tumor immune microenvironment in an extracellular vesicle-mediated manner. In summary, FOXP4-AS1 correlates with poor prognosis of ES. It promotes the growth, migration, as well as invasion of ES cells and may modulate the tumor immune microenvironment.

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