Scientists from the University of São Paulo (USP) have identified an RNA molecule known as INXS that, although containing no instructions for the production of a protein, modulates the action of an important gene that impacts apoptosis.

According to Sergio Verjovski-Almeida, Ph.D., professor at the USP Chemistry Institute, INXS expression is generally diminished in cancer cells, and methods that are capable of stimulating the production of this noncoding RNA can be used to treat tumors. In experiments on mice, the USP scientists were able to effect a 10-fold reduction in the volume of subcutaneous malignant tumors by administering local injections of a plasmid containing INXS.

The team’s findings (“Long noncoding RNA INXS is a critical mediator of BCL-XS induced apoptosis”) were published in Nucleic Acids Research.

The group headed by Dr. Verjovski-Almeida at USP has been investigating the regulatory role of so-called intronic nonprotein-coding genes—those found in the same region of the genome as a coding gene but on the opposite DNA strand. INXS, for example, is an RNA expressed on the opposite strand of a gene coding for  the BCL-X protein.

“We were studying several protein-coding genes involved in cell death in search of evidence that one of them was regulated by intronic noncoding RNA. That was when we found the gene for BCL-X, which is located on chromosome 20,” he explained.

BCL-X is present in cells in two different forms: one that inhibits apoptosis (BCL-XL) and one that induces the process of cell death (BCL-XS). The two isoforms act on the mitochondria but in opposite ways. The BCL-XS isoform is considered a tumor suppressor because it activates caspases, which are required for the activation of other genes that cause cell death.

“In a healthy cell, there is a balance between the two BCL-X isoforms. Normally, there is already a smaller number of the pro-apoptotic form (BCL-XS). However, in comparing tumor cells to nontumor cells, we observed that tumor cells contain even fewer of the pro-apoptotic form, as well as reduced levels of INXS. We suspect that one thing affects the other,” continued Dr. Verjovski-Almeida.

To confirm the hypothesis, the group silenced INXS expression in a normal cell lineage and the result, as expected, was an increase in the BCL-XL (anti-apoptotic) isoform. “The rate between the two—which was 0.25—decreased to 0.15; in other words, the pro-apoptotic form that previously represented one fourth of the total began to represent only one sixth,” noted Dr. Verjovski-Almeida.

The opposite occurred when the researchers artificially increased the amount of INXS using plasmid expression in a kidney cancer cell line, with the noncoding RNA being reduced. “The pro-apoptotic form increased, and the anti-apoptotic form decreased,” he added.

“In a mouse xenograft model, intra-tumor injections of an INXS-expressing plasmid caused a marked reduction in tumor weight, and an increase in BCL-XS isoform, as determined in the excised tumors,” wrote the investigators. “We revealed an endogenous lncRNA that induces apoptosis, suggesting that INXS is a possible target to be explored in cancer therapies.

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