OBSCN restoration via OBSCN-AS1 long-noncoding RNA CRISPR-targeting suppresses metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer

While advances have been made in the detection and treatment of primary breast tumors, metastasis and recurrence have remained remain major challenges. Mounting evidence implicates OBSCN in breast tumorigenesis. Accordingly, low(er) OBSCN levels correlate with significantly reduced overall and relapse-free survival in breast cancer patients, while high(er) OBSCN levels correlate with increased patient responsiveness to anthracycline-chemotherapy. Restoration of OBSCN expression could therefore be of high pathophysiological relevance. Herein, we unravel mechanistic information involving the direct regulation of OBSCN via OBSCN-Antisense RNA 1 (OBSCN-AS1), a nuclear long-noncoding RNA gene. Remarkably, OBSCN restoration via OBSCN-AS1 targeting drastically suppresses cell migration and metastasis. Collectively, our study pinpoints the metastasis suppressor function of the OBSCN-AS1/OBSCN pair that may serve as prognostic biomarker and/or therapeutic target for metastatic breast cancer. We then performed gene expression profiling analysis using RNA-seq data obtained from MDA-MB-231 EV vs sgAS2 and sgAS3 cells Overall design: Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for MDA-MB-231 empty-vector (EV) cells compared to OBSCN/OBSCN-AS1 overexpressing (sgAS2 and sgAS3) cells