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An antisense RNA promotes breast cancer metastasis via upregulation of NQO1

An antisense RNA, NQO1-AS, binds and stabilizes its sense strand, upregulating the redox enzyme NQO1 in metastatic breast cancer cells. Overexpression of NQO1 facilitates lung colonization by suppressing oxidative stress and ferroptosis, and cancer cells dependent on this pathway can be targeted by a combined therapy that induces ferroptosis while simultaneously inhibiting NQO1.

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Fig. 1: NQO1-AS promotes lung colonization and can be targeted therapeutically.

References

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This is a summary of: Culbertson, B. et al. A sense-antisense RNA interaction promotes breast cancer metastasis via regulation of NQO1 expression. Nat. Cancer https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-023-00554-7 (2023).

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An antisense RNA promotes breast cancer metastasis via upregulation of NQO1. Nat Cancer 4, 592–593 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-023-00555-6

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