BACKGROUND Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a highly aggressive cancer whose underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. The natural antisense transcript (NAT) WRAP53 regulates p53 expression and WRAP53 protein is a component of telomerase. NATs play key roles in carcinogenesis, and although WRAP53 is known to increase cancer cell survival, its role in ESCC clinicopatholo...

Antisense transcription is a widespread phenomenon in the mammalian genome. It is thought to play a role in regulation of gene expression, but its exact functional significance is largely unknown. We have identified a natural antisense transcript of p53, designated Wrap53, that regulates endogenous p53 mRNA levels and further induction of p53 protein by targeting the 5' untranslated region of p...

The WRAP53 gene gives rise to a p53 antisense transcript that regulates p53. This gene also encodes a protein that directs small Cajal body-specific RNAs to Cajal bodies. Cajal bodies are nuclear organelles involved in diverse functions such as processing ribonucleoproteins important for splicing. Here we identify the WRAP53 protein as an essential factor for Cajal body maintenance and for dire...

BACKGROUND Telomere length is closely associated with cellular radiosensitivity and WRAP53 is required for telomere addition by telomerase. In this research we assessed radiosensitivity of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma Hep-2 cell lines after WRAP53 inhibition, and analyzed the molecular mechanisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS phWRAP53-siRNA and pNeg-siRNA were constructed and transfected into H...

Wrap531α, a newly identified natural antisense transcript of p53, can regulate p53 expression upon DNA damage. We sought to investigate changes in Wrap53 and p53 levels in an osteosarcoma cell line (U-2OS) exposed to cisplatin and to study apoptosis before and after knockdown of Wrap53. Our RT-PCR analysis showed a dose- dependent 3 to 40-fold increase in Wrap53 mRNA transcript levels in U-2OS ...

BACKGROUND Although the majority of investigations concerned with TP53 and its protein have focused on coding regions, recently a set of studies highlighted significant roles of regulatory elements located in p53 mRNA, especially 5 ? UTR. The wrap53α transcript is one of those that acts as a natural antisense agent, forming RNA-RNA hybrids with p53 mRNA and protecting it from degradation. MAT...

WRAP53 protein controls intracellular trafficking of DNA repair proteins, the telomerase enzyme, and splicing factors. Functional loss of the protein has been linked to carcinogenesis, premature aging and neurodegeneration. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of WRAP53 protein expression in breast cancer. A tissue microarray was constructed from primary breast t...

The TP53 5'-untranslated region flanking the gene WRAP53 (also known as WDR79 and TCAB1) has been hypothesized to be associated with cancer risk due to its critical function in regulating p53 levels. In this review, we analyzed the association between the WRAP53 gene rs2287499 C>G polymorphism and risk of cancer using five case-control studies, comprising seven datasets. All analyses were perfo...

The multifunctional CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) protein exhibits a broad range of functions, including that of insulator and higher-order chromatin organizer. We found that CTCF comprises a previously unrecognized region that is necessary and sufficient to bind RNA (RNA-binding region [RBR]) and is distinct from its DNA-binding domain. Depletion of cellular CTCF led to a decrease in not only le...

Spliceosomal small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) are enriched in the Cajal body (CB). Guide RNAs, known as small Cajal body-specific RNAs (scaRNAs), direct modification of the small nuclear RNA (snRNA) component of the snRNP. The protein WRAP53 binds a sequence motif (the CAB box) found in many scaRNAs and the RNA component of telomerase (hTR) and targets these RNAs to the CB. We have pre...