ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.

Sec. Cancer Genetics and Oncogenomics

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1514205

FEZF1-AS1 drives autophagy-mediated progression of colon cancer and reduced chemosensitivity through inhabiting PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway

Provisionally accepted
Xiaoping YangXiaoping Yang1Zuohui YuanZuohui Yuan2Lingzhu GouLingzhu Gou1Long ChengLong Cheng1Zirui WangZirui Wang3Pingfan WuPingfan Wu4Wang XiaochunWang Xiaochun2Xueni MaXueni Ma1Tiantian MaTiantian Ma5Yi YuYi Yu1Zhiping WuZhiping Wu1Dekui ZhangDekui Zhang1*
  • 1Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China
  • 2Gansu Provincial Hospital, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, China
  • 3Second People's Hospital of Lanzhou City, Lanzhou, Gansu, China
  • 4South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 5Xi'an Chest Hospital, Xi'an, China

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At present, the pathogenesis and chemoresistance mechanism of colon cancer are still unclear. Here, we find that a long non-coding RNA, FEZF1-AS1 is highly expressed in colon cancer, which may be caused by the amplification mutation of FEZF1-AS1 at the gene level through bioinformatics analysis. FEZF1-AS1 has the potential to be a biomarker in the diagnosis of colon cancer. Functionally, FEZF1-AS1 promotes the proliferation, invasion, metastasis and survival of colon cancer cells, and reduces the sensitivity of colon cancer cells to oxaliplatin. Mechanistically, FEZF1-AS1 drives autophagy-mediated development of colon cancer and reduced chemosensitivity to oxaliplatin through inhabiting PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. In summary, our data suggest that FEZF1-AS1 may be a key driver of colon cancer progression and chemotherapy resistance, and targeting FEZF1-AS1 may be a potential strategy for diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer.

Keywords: FEZF1-AS1, Colon Cancer, Autophagy, PI3K/AKT/mTOR, chemosensitivity

Received: 20 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Yuan, Gou, Cheng, Wang, Wu, Xiaochun, Ma, Ma, Yu, Wu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Dekui Zhang, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material