BBOX1-AS1 promotes gastric cardia adenocarcinoma progression via interaction with CtBP2 to facilitate the epithelial–mesenchymal transition process

Abstract

It is recognized that lncRNA BBOX1-AS1 exerts a crucial oncogenic property in several cancer types. However, the functions and underlying mechanisms of BBOX1-AS1 in the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) have remained unclarified. The findings of this study demonstrated that GCA tissues had elevated BBOX1-AS1 expression levels, which was associated with a worse prognosis in GCA patients. BBOX1-AS1 dramatically enhanced cell proliferation, invasion, and TGF-β1-induced the EMT process in vitro. Further mechanism analysis revealed that BBOX1-AS1 could combine with CtBP2 and strengthen the interaction of CtBP2 and ZEB1. BBOX1-AS1 might regulate the E-cadherin expression through CtBP2/ZEB1 transcriptional complex-mediated transcriptional repression, further affecting the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and the EMT process. Overall, our findings demonstrate that BBOX1-AS1 might act as an lncRNA associated with EMT for facilitating GCA advancement via interaction with CtBP2 to facilitate the activation of Wnt/β-catenin pathway and the EMT process, which indicated that it might function as an exploitable treatment target for GCA patients.