2 research outputs found
Shortening of 3β²UTRs Correlates with Poor Prognosis in Breast and Lung Cancer
A major part of the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression is affected by trans-acting elements, such as microRNAs, binding the 3β² untraslated region (UTR) of their target mRNAs. Proliferating cells partly escape this type of negative regulation by expressing shorter 3β² UTRs, depleted of microRNA binding sites, compared to non-proliferating cells. Using large-scale gene expression datasets, we show that a similar phenomenon takes place in breast and lung cancer: tumors expressing shorter 3β² UTRs tend to be more aggressive and to result in shorter patient survival. Moreover, we show that a gene expression signature based only on the expression ratio of alternative 3β² UTRs is a strong predictor of survival in both tumors. Genes undergoing 3β²UTR shortening in aggressive tumors of the two tissues significantly overlap, and several of them are known to be involved in tumor progression. However the pattern of 3β² UTR shortening in aggressive tumors in vivo is clearly distinct from analogous patterns involved in proliferation and transformation