Circ-ITCH correlates with less advanced tumor features as well as prolonged survival, and it inhibits cells proliferation but promotes apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

BackgroundThis study was to investigate the correlation of circ-ITCH expression with tumor features, disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, and the effect of its dysregulation on cells proliferation and apoptosis of NSCLC cells.MethodsTumor tissue and paired adjacent normal tissue samples from 190 surgical NSCLC patients were collected and used for detecting circ-ITCH expression by qPCR. Circ-ITCH expression was also measured in normal pulmonary epithelial cell line and 4 NSCLC cell lines by qPCR. Patients’ baseline characteristics were recorded and DFS as well as OS were calculated. Blank, circ-ITCH overexpression, blank shRNA, circ-ITCH shRNA plasmids were transferred into NSCLC cell line (A549 cells) as NC(+), Circ-ITCH(+), NC(−) and Circ-ITCH(−) groups. Cells proliferation was measured using CCK-8 and cells apoptosis rate was measured using annexin V (AV)/propidium iodide (PI).ResultsCirc-ITCH expression was decreased in tumor tissue compared with paired adjacent tissue, and was negatively correlated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. And circ-ITCH high expression was associated with favorable DFS and OS. In vitro experiments revealed that compared with normal pulmonary epithelial cell line BEAS-2B, circ-ITCH expression was reduced in NSCLC cell lines HCC827, A549, NCI-H1299 and NCI-H460. And cells proliferation was decreased in Circ-ITCH(+) group and elevated in Circ-ITCH(−) group at 72 h. Cells apoptosis rate was increased in Circ-ITCH(+) group and decreased in Circ-ITCH(−) group at 72 h.ConclusionsCirc-ITCH associates with less advanced tumor features and prolonged survival, and it inhibits cells proliferation while promotes cells apoptosis in NSCLC.