Figure 5. HULC inhibited Beclin-1 phosphorylation and autophagy through the mTOR pathway. Expression of LC3B-II after irradiation was up-regulated by HULC silence (A) while down-regulated by HULC overexpression (B). C, Expression of LC3B-II in tumor formed from HULC silenced-PC3 cells was higher than the sh-NC group after irradiation. D, HULC knockdown promoted autophagy through suppressing the mTOR cascade. E, HULC bound to Beclin-1. F, The effect of HULC knockdown on PC3 cells was further augmented by mTOR inhibitor. HULC: long non-coding RNA highly upregulated in liver cancer; sh-HULC: pGPU6/GFP/Neo plasmid carrying short-hairpin RNA targeting HULC; sh-NC: pGPU6/GFP/Neo plasmid carrying a non-targeting RNA; pEX-HULC: pEX-2 plasmid carrying full-length HULC; LC3B-II: microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3B II; 4E-BP1: eukaryotic initiation factor 4E binding protein 1; p: phosphorylated.