Abstract
BackgroundNon-small cell lung cancer is a common type of lung cancer. Piperlongumine (PL), which is extracted from the roots of piperaceae plant, long pepper, and peppercorn, is an alkaloid amide that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis. However, whether it affects lung cancer cells remains unclear.MethodsWe assessed the effects of PL on the proliferation and apoptosis of A549 and H1299 NSCLC cell lines.ResultsPL was mildly toxic to normal human bronchial epithelial cells and significantly suppressed growth and facilitated apoptosis of A549 and H1299 cells. It also upregulated microRNA (miR)-34b-3p and downregulated the transforming growth factor beta type I receptor (TGFBR1). The dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that TGFBR1 is a target gene of miR-34b-3p. Silencing of miR-34b-3p or overexpression of TGFBR1 partially attenuated the effects of PL on A549 and H1299 cells.ConclusionsPL inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of A549 and H1299 cells by upregulating miR-34b-3p and modulating TGFBR1 signaling pathway.
Highlights
Non-small cell lung cancer is a common type of lung cancer
PL upregulates miR-34b-3p expression in Lung cancer (LC) cell lines To study the anti-tumor mechanism of PL, miRNA microarray analysis was performed in A549 cells after treatment with PL
To further confirm these results, miR-34b-3p expression was detected by quantitative PCR after total RNA extraction from PL-treated A549, H1299, H520, and SPCA-1 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells
Summary
Non-small cell lung cancer is a common type of lung cancer. Piperlongumine (PL), which is extracted from the roots of piperaceae plant, long pepper, and peppercorn, is an alkaloid amide that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis. Whether it affects lung cancer cells remains unclear. The two main types of LC are small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that regulate the expression of several genes [4, 5] through complementary binding to the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of target gene mRNAs [6, 7]. The abnormal expression of miRNAs in LC (high or low) may lead to tumor heterogeneity and tumorinitiating cell behaviors [13]
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