Oncogenic HPV promotes the expression of the long noncoding RNA lnc-FANCI-2 through E7 and YY1
Haibin Liu, Junfen Xu, Yanqin Yang, Xiaohong Wang, Ethan Wu, Vladimır Majerčiak, Tingting Zhang, Renske D.M. Steenbergen, Hsu-Kun Wang, N. Sanjib Banerjee, Yang Li, Weiguo Lü, Craig Meyers, Jun Zhu, Xing Xie, Louise T. Chow, Zhi‐Ming Zheng
Abstract
Significance Persistent infections of oncogenic HPVs can lead to cervical, anogenital, and head-and-neck cancers. We report that HPV-infected cervical lesions display aberrant expression of 194 long-noncoding RNAs, including lnc-FANCI-2 . We show that, in cell and tissue cultures, lnc-FANCI-2 is induced primarily by the oncogenic HPV E7 protein via interacting with a cellular transcription factor YY1. HPV infection also increases YY1 protein expression by reducing miR-29a, which targets the 3′ UTR of YY1 RNA. In vivo and in vitro, the nearby DNA repair gene FANCI is co-upregulated. These findings highlight an aspect on how oncogenic HPV E7 contributes to pathogenesis.