SPRY4-IT1 contributes to increased cell proliferation by activating zinc finger protein 703 expression in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Objective To observe the long non-coding RNA SPRY4-IT1 expression level in non-small cell lung cancer and its biological funciton in aspects of cell proliferation. Methods Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to measure the expression of SPRY4-IT1 in 32 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Loss of function approach was then applied to confirm the biological function, especially cell prolifieration in cultured human lung cancer cells A5549, by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and clonogenic assay. We further used western blot to reveal the activation of zinc finger protein 703 (ZNF703) by SPRY4-IT1. Results The SPRY4-IT1 relative expression level were 1.12±0.78 and 3.24±2.01 respectively for tumor tissue and norma tissue of NSCLC patients with statistical difference (t=5.56, P=0.001); SPRY4-IT1 expression level were significant decreased by transinfection of si-SPRY4-IT1 in A549 cells. A549 cell clone formation ability was significantly reduced by traninfection of si-SPRY4-IT1. The mRNA expression of ZNF703 were 0.61±0.07 and 0.96±0.08 for si-SPRY4-IT1 and si-nc A549 cells with statistical difference (P=0.001); The protein expression of ZNF703 were 0.08±0.02 and 0.12±0.03 for si-SPRY4-IT1 and si-nc A549 cells with statistical difference (P=0.001). Conclusion SPRY4-IT1 expression is up-regulated in tumor tissue of non-small cell lung cancer patients and the SPRY4-IT1/ZNF703 axis might contribute to increased proliferation ability of lung cancer cells. Key words: SPRY4-IT1; Non-small cell lung cancer; Long chain of non encoding RNA; Proliferation ability