LAUSR

Cancer To metastasize, cancer cells must switch from epithelial (polarized and fixed) into mesenchymal (motile and invasive) phenotypes to disseminate and colonize both primary and metastatic sites. Zhou et al. found that the long noncoding RNA H19 acted as a site-specific microRNA sponge to promote an epithelial or mesenchymal switch in tumor cells. In epithelial-like tumor cells in primary and metastatic sites, H19 sequestered miR-200b/c and ultimately inhibited migration. In mesenchymal-like disseminated cells in circulation, H19 sequestered a different micoRNA, Let-7b, and ultimately promoted migration. Sci. Signal. 10 , eaak9557 (2017).