Iodine-125 inhibits invasion and metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer cells by downregulating the long noncoding RNA AK213263

Abstract Background:The interstitial implantation of iodine-125 (125I) by thoracotomy represents a new minimally invasive method for the treatment of lung cancer. Plasmacytoma variant translocation1 (AK213263), which is a long non‑coding RNA (lncRNA), is increased in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues. AK213263 promotes the proliferation of NSCLC cells and is, therefore, an important indicator for early diagnosis and accurate prognosis of NSCLC. However, the detailed molecular mechanism by which 125I and AK213263 affect the pathophysiology of NSCLC remains vague. Methods: A total of thirty-one pairs of NSCLC tissue and corresponding adjacent healthy lung tissue were collected from Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University between March 2015 and September 2016. Using transwell and wound healing assays, together with western blotting and xenograft mouse model, we demonstrated that 125I significantly inhibits NSCLC cell invasion and metastasis by downregulating AK213263. Results: we show that AK213263 was significantly downregulated by 125I treatment in the NSCLC cell lines tested. In a xenograft mouse model, small interfering AK213263 (si-AK213263) effectively reversed the effect of 125I in reducing tumor size. Conclusion: 125I inhibits NSCLC cell invasion and metastasis by downregulating AK213263. We elucidated the molecular mechanism underlying the oncogenic role of AK213263, which provides a lncRNA-directed target for improved treatment of NSCLC.