Long noncoding RNA ROR1-AS1 induces tumor metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition by sponging miR-375 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Authors: J Hou
K Zhu
J-J Li
J Yan
X-Y Ren
X-Y Du
M Xu
Journal: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences (2020)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: lncRNA; ROR1-AS1; metastasis; NPC; RT-qPCR
Affiliations: Department of Otolaryngology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xian, China. .

Abstract:  Objective: The vital role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in tumor progression has been identified in numerous studies. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most ordinary malignant tumors. This study aims to explore the role of lncRNA ROR1-AS1 in the metastasis of NPC. Patients and methods: Real Time-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) was utilized to measure ROR1-AS1 expression in 50 NPC tissues. The function assays including wound healing assay and transwell assay were conducted to detect the behavior changes of NPC cells after the knockdown of ROR1-AS1, and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of NPC metastasis was further measured by performing the Western blot assay in vitro. Besides, the target miRNAs were also explored by luciferase assays and RNA immunoprecipitation assay (RIP). Results: ROR1-AS1 expression level was significantly higher in NPC samples compared with that in adjacent tissues. The knockdown of ROR1-AS1 reduced cell migration and cell invasion of NPC cells, which was identified to inhibit the EMT process of NPC. Furthermore, it was discovered that miR-375 was upregulated via knockdown of ROR1-AS1 and further mechanism assays showed that ROR1-AS1 acted as a competing endogenous RNA via sponging miR-375 in NPC. Conclusions: Our study suggests that ROR1-AS1 could act as a sponge for miR-375 and promote cell migration and invasion by inducing EMT process in NPC. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 This paper, although withdrawn in April 2020, is one of a set of 121 papers that all contain images from the same library of about 100 photos and plots. This is unexpected, because each paper has different authors and different affiliations, with little to no overlap, and describes different cancer types and molecules. It would be very hard to explain how authors from different labs would all obtain the same photo. Therefore, the papers might have all be derived from the same source, such as a paper mill that sells ready-to-be-published papers. This  Stock Photo paper set has been described in more detail on my blog post, https: scienceintegritydigest.com 2020 07 05 the-stock-photo-paper-mill and in a Wall Street Journal article by Eva Xiao (currently behind a paywall): https: www.wsj.com articles chinese-research-papers-raise-doubts-fueling-global-questions-about-scientific-integrity-11593939600 The vast majority (113 121) of the papers were published in the same journal, European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences (ERMPS). A link to the full set of papers can be found here: https: docs.google.com spreadsheets d 172RWS18w1lTNJ9Nnj80fuXXTqTm4fGkoK0sdYyvKE3g edit?usp=sharing All papers have been reported to the journal editors on July 2, 2020. , 
 An additional concern: Figure 2 shows two panels that not only both match the 100 photos in the Stock Photo library, but that also appear to overlap with each other. Both are showing the  TW14 - Necklace photo. Overlap shown with red boxes. A third panel also shows a part of the same TW14 photo, but does not overlap with the other two. ![file] ,