The prognosis of bladder cancer (BCa) depends on several key factors including anatomical site, tumor grade, and stage. In general, muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) is associated with higher incidence of distant metastasis compared with Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Treatment outcome of the patients with metastatic BCa has been very poor with ~15% of overall survival rate. Thus, it is apparently important to understand the underlying biology for metastatic progression of BCa. Although epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has long been implicated in BCa metastasis and treatment resistance, the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. In this study, we have identified that the expression of interferon induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 5 (IFIT5) is positively correlated with pathological characteristics, and predicts a poor prognosis of BCa patients. Since the function of IFIT5 in BCa has not yet been characterized, we demonstrate that IFIT5 can induce EMT, promote cell migration and invasion, and increase the expression of ICAM1 in BCa via down-regulation of mature miR-99a. Moreover, ICAM1 is shown as a direct target of miR-99a. Overall, we conclude that IFIT5 is a new oncogene in BCa.

Cell death & disease. 2019 Jun 04*** epublish ***

Jun Huang, U-Ging Lo, Shiqi Wu, Bin Wang, Rey-Chen Pong, Chih-Ho Lai, Ho Lin, Dalin He, Jer-Tsong Hsieh, Kaijie Wu

Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, P.R. China., Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA., Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan., Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan., Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA. ., Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, P.R. China. .

X