title: Identification of a novel gene HEPT3 that is overexpressed in human hepatocellular carcinoma and may function through its noncoding RNA.
abstract: Genetic alterations have been defined as the hallmark of cancers as they are responsible for the differences between normal and malignant phenotypes. A widely accepted approach to study genetic instability is to identify cancer-related genes, in particular, the two major groups of growth regulatory genes - oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes. Using the technique of suppression subtractive hybridisation, we identified a novel gene transcript, designated as HEPT3. RT-PCR demonstrated that HEPT3 was overexpressed in 87% (20/23) of HCC patients and in 4/5 HCC cell lines tested. Sequence analyses performed on the full-length cDNA revealed that HEPT3 is an intronless gene mapped to human chromosome 6q13-14. The gene transcript lacks an extensive open reading frame and contains an Alu sequence near the 5' terminus, indicating that HEPT3 encodes a noncoding RNA. Antisense studies on the HCC cell line HepG2 showed that, when HEPT3 expression level was reduced, cell proliferation rate was inhibited by approximately 5-fold and cell colony formation was reduced by at least 50%. Our data suggest that the novel gene HEPT3 may function through its noncoding RNA and its overexpression may play a role in hepatocarcinogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Hepato-Oncogenetics, Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117597.
authors.forename: Mei Chung
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Moh
authors.forename: Lay Hoon
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shali
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000188:drug therapy*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002896:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 6; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense / Q000737:chemistry; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary; C523391:HEPT3 protein, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D016376:Oligonucleotides, Antisense; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm; D022661:RNA, Untranslated