Lung cancer, with the highest morbidity and second highest death rates, is one of the most common cancers in both males and females worldwide. Lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) is the main lung cancer class. KCNQ1 Opposite Strand/Antisense Transcript 1 (KCNQ1OT1) gene is an lncRNA which had been reported high-expression in colorectal cancer. In this study, the expression of KCNQ1OT1 was confirmed to be highly expressed in LAD tissues and cells contrast to control tissues and cells, and high KCNQ1OT1 expression correlated to malignant behaviors of LAD, including big tumor size, poor differentiation, positive lymphatic metastasis and high TNM stages. The transfection of si-KCNQ1OT1 could effectually knockdown the expression of KCNQ1OT1 in A549 and A549/PA cells. The KCNQ1OT1 knockdown depressed the proliferation and invasion of A549 cells, and advanced cellular apoptosis of A549 cells. The expression of KCNQ1OT1 in LAD patients insensitive to paclitaxel was much higher than that in LAD patients sensitive to paclitaxel; the KCNQ1OT1 expression in A549/PA cells was also much higher than that in control A549 cells. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of paclitaxel in A549/PA cells was depressed by KCNQ1OT1 knockdown, chemoresistance of A549/PA cells was inhibited significantly. KCNQ1OT1 knockdown also depressed the expression of multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) protein in A549/PA cells. In summary, lncRNA KCNQ1OT1 was highly expressed in LAD and functioned as a potential oncogene to inhibit malignancy and chemoresistance of LAD cells, which might be a novel potential therapeutic target for LAD.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a family of non-protein-coding RNAs that might affect Lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) chemo-resistance and most of them could be used as biomarkers and therapy targets. However, the potential function of lncRNA ANRIL contributed paclitaxel chemo-resistance in LAD is still unknown. This study aimed to observe the expression of ANRIL in LAD, evaluate its biological role in the resistance of LAD cells to paclitaxel and explore the apoptosis role in the ANRIL associated mechanism. Our results showed that ANRIL functioning as a potential oncogene was up-regulated in LAD, and promoted the acquisition of chemo-resistance in paclitaxel partly through the mitochondrial pathway by modulating the expression of apoptosis-related protein cleaved-PARP and Bcl-2. These findings might improve LAD patients' paclitaxel treatment and made ANRIL to be a new target for paclitaxel-based chemotherapy in LAD.

Psoriasis is characterized by keratinocyte proliferation and immune cell infiltration. M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) was reported to have an important role in cell proliferation, which is a rate-limiting enzyme that regulates the final step of glycolysis. However, how PKM2 regulates cell metabolism and proliferation in psoriatic keratinocytes is still poorly understood. Interestingly, we found that PKM2 was highly expressed in psoriatic epidermis from patients and mouse models. PKM2 overexpression promoted keratinocyte glycolytic metabolism while knockdown inhibited keratinocyte proliferation and glycolysis. Mice lacking PKM2 specifically in keratinocytes, pharmacological inhibition of PKM2 or glycolysis inhibited keratinocyte proliferation and showed obvious remission in an imiquimod-induced psoriatic mouse model. Moreover, the inhibitor of the EGF-receptor blocked EGF-stimulated PKM2 expression and glycolysis in keratinocytes. We identify PKM2 as an upregulated gene in psoriasis. PKM2 is essential in keratinocyte over-proliferation and may represent a therapeutic target for psoriasis.

Paclitaxel is a chemotherapeutic drug that is effective for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, some NSCLCs are not sensitive to paclitaxel treatment with undetermined underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, we found that paclitaxel dose-dependently activated Beclin-1 in 2 NSCLC cell lines, A549 and Calu-3. Inhibition of autophagy significantly increased the paclitaxel-induced NSCLC cell death in a cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Moreover, microRNA (miR)-216b levels were significantly downregulated in paclitaxel-treated NSCLC cells. Bioinformatics study showed that miR-216b targeted the 3'-UTR of Beclin-1 mRNA to inhibit its translation, which was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Together, these data suggest that paclitaxel may decrease miR-216b levels in NSCLC cells, which subsequently upregulates Beclin-1 to increase NSCLC cell autophagy to antagonize paclitaxel-induced cell death. Strategies that increase miR-216b levels or inhibit cell autophagy may improve the outcome of paclitaxel treatment in NSCLC therapy.

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