Musashi1 Promotes Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma Malignancy and Chemoresistance via Activating the Akt Signaling Pathway.

Background/aims: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes for cancer mortality. The poor therapeutic outcome of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is mainly due to late diagnosis and chemoresistance. In this study, we investigated the role of Musashi1 (MSI1) in NSCLC malignancy and chemoresistance.

Methods: Colony formation, MTT, glucose uptake and lactate production assays were employed to study lung cancer cell malignancy and chemoresistance. RT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect mRNA and protein expressions of genes. We used immunohistochemistry and Pearson correlation analysis to study the relationship of gene expression.

Results: We demonstrated that MSI1 was able to promote the proliferation and glucose metabolism of NSCLC cells, and to mediate the sensitivity to chemotherapy drugs in NSCLC cells. Importantly, we found that MSI1 could regulate the activity of Akt signaling. The regulation of NSCLC proliferation, glucose metabolism and chemoresistance by MSI1 was dependent on the modulation of the activity of the Akt signaling pathway. We also found that MSI1 was a target of miR-181a-5p, a microRNA involved in the regulation of cancer development. The expression levels of MSI1 and miR-181a-5p were negatively correlated in NSCLC.

Conclusion: MSI1 promotes non-small cell lung carcinoma malignancy and chemoresistance via activating the Akt signaling pathway, which provides a new strategy for the therapy of NSCLC.