AU-rich element-binding proteins (ARE-BPs) offer post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression via physical interaction and recruitment of RNA decay machinery to the AU-rich elements within the 3'-UTR of the target transcripts. However, the role of ARE-BPs in lung cancer remains poorly understood. In this study, we have identified that K-homology splicing regulatory protein (KSRP), an ARE-BP, is robustly up-regulated in human lung cancer. Importantly, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that elevated KSRP expression was correlated with poor overall survival of lung cancer patients. Furthermore, cigarette smoke, a leading risk factor for lung cancer, was also identified to be an important contributor to increased KSRP expression. Remarkably, silencing of KSRP decreased cell proliferation, reversed anchorage-independent growth, and reduced migration/invasion, suggesting an oncogenic role for KSRP in lung cancer. Finally, we provide mechanistic evidence that KSRP promotes the down-regulation of Spry4 by a previously unidentified mechanism, i.e. post-transcriptional mRNA regulation.
Keywords: KSRP; NSCLC; RNA-binding protein; Spry4; cell invasion; cell migration; mRNA decay; post-transcriptional regulation.
© 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.