LncRNA CASC11 promotes cancer cell proliferation in hepatocellular carcinoma by inhibiting miRNA-188-5p
Authors: Jian Xu
Nan Cheng
Xi Chen
Yadong Wang
Ju Wu
Min Yin
Zhequn Nie
Jiajun Yin
Journal: Bioscience reports (2019)
Discipline: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & GENETICS
Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma; lncRNA CASC11; miR-188-5p; survival.
Affiliations: Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, Dalian City, Liaoning Province 116001, PR China., Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Dalian University, Dalian City, Liaoning Province 116001, PR China  .

Abstract:  It is known that lncRNA CASC11 promotes the development of gastric cancer. Our study was carried out to investigate the possible involvement of ncRNA CASC11 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we found that CASC11 was up-regulated, while miR-188-5p was down-regulated in tumor tissues of HCC patients. CASC11 and miR-188-5p were not affected by HBV and HCV infections. Follow-up study showed that high levels of CASC11 were significantly correlated with poor survival. Expression levels of CASC11 and miR-188-5p were inversely correlated in tumor tissues. CASC11 overexpression mediated the down-regulation of miR-188-5p, while miR-188-5p overexpression failed to affect CASC11 expression. CASC11 overexpression led to promoted, while miR-188-5p overexpression led to inhibited proliferation of cells of HCC cell lines. CASC11 overexpression showed no significant effects on cancer cell migration and invasion. In addition, miR-188-5p overexpression attenuated the enhancing effects of CASC11 overexpression on cancer cell proliferation. Therefore, LncRNA CASC11 promoted cancer cell proliferation in HCC possibly by inhibiting miR-188-5p. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
  It was observed that CASC11 and miR-188-5p were **significantly and inversely correlation** in HCC tissues (Figure 3A). In contrast, the correlation between CASC11 and miR-188-5p was not significant in non-cancer tissues (Figure 3B). A minor grammatical error, but an uncommon one. We also find it in [Yu et al (2020)] :  Interestingly, expression levels of miR-16 were **significantly and inversely correlation** with expression levels of circPDSS1 only in tumor tissues (Figure 2B), but not in adjacent healthy tissues (Figure 2C). Perhaps the authors were following a template? I realise that the genre involves strict conventions. ![file] , 
 I am struggling to reconcile Figs 1 and 2. Fig 1:  RT-qPCR results showed that CASC11 was up-regulated (A), while miR-188-5p was down-regulated (B) in HCC tissues than in non-cancer tissues of HCC patients. Fig 3:  Linear correlation analysis showed that CASC11 and miR-188-5p were significantly and inversely correlated in HCC tissues (A), but not in non-cancer tissues (B). To put it another way, the swarm plots of Fig 1 should correspond to the marginal distributions of values in Fig 3 s scatterplots. ![file] This is the case for the non-cancer tissue samples: ![file] In the HCC samples, however, there are points located by their horizontal-axis values in the scatterplot (i.e. their CASC11 values) with no corresponding points in the CASC11 swarm plot: ![file] What am I missing here? ,