Cloning and characterization of a novel RNA involved in cellular growth regulation.

During the course of antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (oligo) inhibition experiments investigating the role of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in the WI-38 cell cycle, we found that a sense-strand oligo (S oligo), used as a control, inhibited DNA synthesis 90 to 95%. S1 nuclease protection assays demonstrated that this S oligo formed intracellular duplexes with WI-38 RNA, and Northern (RNA) hybridization analyses demonstrated specific hybridization of this 32P-labeled S oligo to 1.8-, 2.3-, and 3.2-kb RNAs. We have cloned and sequenced a 2,251-bp cDNA, designated BB1, corresponding to the 2.3-kb RNA. Decoding of the BB1 cDNA sequence reveals several open reading frames arranged in a motif similar to that seen in proteins subject to translational control mechanisms. Homology searches of nucleic acid and protein data bases reveal no significant homology of BB1 with known sequences other than a 234-bp region in the BB1 5' untranslated region that shared 97% homology with a region in the 3' untranslated region of the human cdc42 mRNA. S1 nuclease protection analyses performed with IGF-I gene fragments and computer homology searches demonstrated that the BB1 RNA does not derive from transcription from the opposite strand of the IGF-I gene. Northern hybridization analyses of RNA extracted from serum-starved HeLa S3 cells demonstrated that steady-state BB1 RNA levels increased upon serum growth stimulation, with steady-state levels peaking 4 h after release from the block induced by serum starvation. Antisense oligo inhibition experiments using specific BB1 antisense oligos targeted to the putative open reading frames of the BB1 RNA reduce DNA synthesis of HeLa S3 cells to 15% of control levels, indicating that the BB1 RNA is essential for cell cycle traversal and, as such, encodes a growth-reguLating gene product.