Conclusion
Collectively, our study first identified CRPAT4 as a hypoxia-regulated lncRNA, acting as an oncogene in ccRCC progression via regulating AVL9 protein, thus expanding our knowledge on the hypoxia pathway in ccRCC biology from a noncoding perspective. Moreover, CRPAT4 has the potential to be a prognostic marker in ccRCC patients.
Methods
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to demonstrate that CRPAT4 was differentially expressed between ccRCC and the normal controls and that high CRPAT4 expression significantly associated with advanced Fuhrman nuclear grades.
Results
Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with The Cancer Genome Atlas KIRC RNA sequencing data indicated that high CRPAT4 expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival and progression-free survival. Functional studies indicated that CRPAT4 was an HIF-1α regulated gene, and CRPAT4 knockdown significantly inhibited cell migration and proliferation in the absence of HIF-1α. In addition, a mechanistic study revealed that CRPAT4 could regulate the expression of the migration-associated protein AVL9.