A positive feedback loop between ZNF205-AS1 and EGR4 promotes non-small cell lung cancer growth

Accumulating evidences revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are frequently implicated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Herein, we reported the identification of a novel NSCLC-associated functional lncRNA ZNF205 antisense RNA 1 (ZNF205-AS1). ZNF205-AS1 was increased in NSCLC tissues and cell lines, and associated with poor prognosis of NSCLC patients. Bioinformatics prediction, combined with experimental verification revealed that early growth response 4 (EGR4) directly bound to ZNF205-AS1 promoter, increased the promoter activity of ZNF205-AS1, and activated ZNF205-AS1 transcription. Intriguingly, ZNF205-AS1 transcript directly interacted with EGR4 mRNA, increased EGR4 mRNA stability, and up-regulated EGR4 expression via RNA-RNA interaction. Thus, ZNF205-AS1 and EGR4 formed a positive feedback loop. Through regulating EGR4, ZNF205-AS1 activated its own promoter activity. EGR4 was also increased in NSCLC and the expression of ZNF205-AS1 was significantly positively correlated with EGR4 in NSCLC tissues. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function assays demonstrated that both ZNF205-AS1 and EGR4 promoted NSCLC cell growth in vitro and NSCLC tumour growth in vivo. Concurrently depleting ZNF205-AS1 and EGR4 more significantly repressed NSCLC tumour growth in vivo. Collectively, our study demonstrated that the positive feedback loop between ZNF205-AS1 and EGR4 promotes NSCLC growth, and implied that targeting this feedback loop may be promising therapeutic strategy for NSCLC.