HOTAIR Promotes Prostate Cancer Progression by facilitating CDK9-Pol II Association and Transcriptional Elongation.

Previous research has predominantly focused on the regulatory role of lncRNA HOTAIR in gene silencing by interacting with the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), but its direct role as a transcriptional activator remains less well characterized. Here, our study reveals a novel regulatory mechanism of HOTAIR, which facilitates prostate cancer (PCa) progression by enhancing transcription elongation. Integrating ChIRP-seq, RNA-seq, and ChIP-seq, we found that HOTAIR co-localizes with AR and facilitates the interaction between CDK9 and Pol II. This function requires the 1-442 nt region and intact RNA, as deletion or RNase treatment disrupts the interaction. Re-expression of full-length HOTAIR, but not the deletion mutant, restores nascent transcription of target genes; conversely, CDK9 inhibition suppresses this elongation effect. We identified MMP14 and TNFAIP2 as functional downstream targets; ectopic expression of either rescues colony formation and invasive migration upon HOTAIR depletion. HOTAIR knockdown reduced Ser2P and Ser5P signals at target loci, yet RNA pull-down showed no direct binding to Pol II Ser5P, implying that any effect on initiation is indirect. This elongation activity operates in both AR-positive and AR-negative cells, with AR acting as a context-specific recruiter. Collectively, these findings support a model in which HOTAIR functions as an elongation activator and suggest potential therapeutic targets in prostate cancer.
Cancer
Care/Management
Policy

Authors

Qian Qian, Wang Wang, Su Su, Li Li, Zhao Zhao, Jiang Jiang, Zhang Zhang, Zhao Zhao, Li Li, Shi Shi, Huang Huang, Lu Lu
View on Pubmed
Share
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky
Linkedin
Copy to clipboard