Molecular Analysis of in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Our previous study found that zinc finger protein 71 (ZNF71) mRNA expression was associated with chemosensitivity and its protein expression was prognostic of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The Krüppel associated box (KRAB) transcriptional repression domain is commonly present in human zinc finger proteins, which are linked to imprinting, silencing of repetitive elements, proliferation, apoptosis, and cancer. This study revealed that had a significantly higher expression than the -less isoform in NSCLC tumors ( = 197) and cell lines ( = 117). Patients with higher expression had a significantly worse survival outcome than patients with lower expression (log-rank = 0.04; hazard ratio (HR): 1.686 [1.026, 2.771]), whereas overall and -less expression levels were not prognostic in the same patient cohort. expression was associated with epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in both patient tumors and cell lines. was overexpressed in NSCLC cell lines resistant to docetaxel and paclitaxel treatment compared to chemo-sensitive cell lines, consistent with its association with poor prognosis in patients. Therefore, isoform is a more effective prognostic factor than overall and -less expression for NSCLC. Functional analysis using CRISPR-Cas9 and RNA interference (RNAi) screening data indicated that a knockdown/knockout of ZNF71 did not significantly affect NSCLC cell proliferation in vitro.