Design and Functional Validation of a Mutant Variant o f the LncRNA HOTAIR to Counteract Snail Function in Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition

HOTAIR is a lncRNA overexpressed in several epithelial cancers and strongly correlated with invasion. This lncRNA was proven a pivotal element of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a transdifferentiation process triggering metastasis. Snail, master inducer of EMT, requires HOTAIR to recruit EZH2 on specific epithelial target genes (i.e., HNF4 alpha, E-cadherin, and HNF1 alpha) and cause their repression. Here, we designed a HOTAIR deletion mutant form, named HOTAIR-sbid, including the putative Snail-binding domain but depleted of the EZH2-binding domain. HOTAIR-sbid acted as a dominant negative of the endogenous HOTAIR. in both murine and human tumor cells, HOTAIR-sbid impaired the ability of HOTAIR to bind Snail and, in turn, trigger H3K27me3/EZH2-mediated repression of Snail epithelial target genes. Notably, HOTAIR-sbid expression was proven to reduce cellular motility, invasiveness, anchorage-independent growth, and responsiveness to TGF beta-induced EMT. These data provide evidence on a lncRNA-based strategy to effectively impair the function of a master EMT-transcriptional factor. Significance: This study defines an innovative RNA-based strategy to interfere with a pivotal function of the tumor-related lncRNA HOTAIR, comprising a dominant negative mutant that was computationally designed and that impairs epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.