Down-regulation of long noncoding RNA RP11-713B9.1 contributes to the cell viability in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Abstract

Early diagnosis is essential to reduce lung cancer-associated morbidity and mortality rates; however the lack of diagnostic biomarkers for lung cancer has made this difficult. Recent studies have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) serve important roles in cancer occurrence and progression. The present study investigated the novel lncRNA RP11-713B9.1, which is the antisense transcript of tumor suppressor in lung cancer 1 (TSLC1). The expression levels of RP11-713B9.1 and TSLC1 in non-small cell lung cancer were determined using reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, which revealed that the expression of RP11-713B9.1 and TSLC1 was significantly downregulated in tumor tissue compared with that in adjacent normal tissue samples. In addition, the expression of RP11-713B9.1 was identified to be positively correlated with the expression of tumor suppressors TSLC1, CYLD lysine 63 deubiquitinase and APC WNT signaling pathway regulator, and negatively correlated with B-Raf proto-oncogene serine/threonine kinase expression. Furthermore, the overexpression of RP11-713B9.1 resulted in significant upregulation of TSLC1 and inhibition of H460 cell viability, while the opposite effects were observed following the knockdown of RP11-713B9.1 in A549 cells. Taken together, the results of the current study suggest that lncRNA RP11-713B9.1 serves as a promising biomarker and potential therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancer.