Overexpression of miRNA-21 promotes radiation-resistance of non-small cell lung cancer

• Published in: Radiation oncology (London, England) Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 146
• Main Authors: Wang, Xiao-chun, Wang, Wei, Zhang, Zhu-Bo, Zhao, Jing, Tan, Xiao-Gang, Luo, Jian-Chao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 19.06.2013; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Aged; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - genetics; Blotting, Northern; Blotting, Western; Cancer therapies; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - genetics; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - mortality; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - pathology; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - radiotherapy; Care and treatment; Cell Line, Tumor; Female; Gene expression; Genetic aspects; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Ionizing radiation; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lung cancer; Lung cancer, Non-small cell; Lung Neoplasms - genetics; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Lung Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Male; Medicine; Metastasis; MicroRNA; MicroRNAs - genetics; Middle Aged; Mortality; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Proteins; Radiation therapy; Radiation Tolerance - genetics; Radiotherapy; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA polymerase; Science; Studies; Surgery; Thoracic surgery; Transfection; Tumors; China
• ISSN: 1748-717X; 1748-717X
• DOI: 10.1186/1748-717X-8-146

MiRNA-21 was previously reported to be up-regulated in many kinds of cancer. In the present study, we want to investigate the potential role of miRNA-21 in non-small cell lung cancer. Expression of miRNA-21 was detected in 60 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) samples and adjacent histologically normal tissue using RT-qPCR, Correlation between miRNA-21 expression and clinicopathological features of NSCLC was analyzed using statistical software. The effect of miRNA-21 expression on the growth and apoptosis of A549 cells induced by irradiation was examined. miRNA-21 expression increased in non-small cell lung cancer. Expression of miRNA-21 was positively associated with lymph node metastasis, clinical stage and poor prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that miRNA-21 was an independent prognostic factor for patients. Down-regulation of miRNA-21 inhibited proliferation and cell cycle progress of A549 cells and sensitized cells to radiation. Decreased miRNA-21 expression promoted the apoptosis of A549 cells induced by irradiation. miRNA-21 may be considered as a potential novel target for future development of specific therapeutic interventions in NSCLC.