Overexpression of Ulk2 inhibits proliferation and enhances chemosensitivity to cisplatin in non‑small cell lung cancer

作者：Hong Cheng, Zetian Yang, Yuquan Bai, Yanfei Cai, Jinping Zhao · 发表于：Oncology Letters · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.3892/ol.2018.9604 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Autophagy in Disease and Therapy、MicroRNA in disease regulation、Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Disease

The aim of the present study was to examine the function of unc‑51 like autophagy activating kinase 2 (Ulk2) in non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Western blotting was used to analyze the protein expression of Ulk2 in seven pairs of cancerous and adjacent non‑cancerous NSCLC specimens. Reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‑qPCR) analysis was used to determine the mRNA expression of Ulk2 in 20 pairs of tumor and adjacent normal tissues. Two NSCLC cell lines, A549 and H460, were transfected with an Ulk2 overexpression plasmid or empty vector; cell proliferation and chemosensitivity were measured using an MTT assay, and flow cytometry and western blotting were used to evaluate apoptosis. A nude mouse tumorigenesis experiment was used to assess tumor volume in vivo, using A549 cells stably overexpressing Ulk2 and control cells. The protein expression levels of Ulk2 were significantly lower in 6/7 (85.7%) cases of NSCLC compared with in non‑cancerous tissues, as determined by western blotting (P<0.05). The mRNA expression levels of Ulk2 were significantly lower in 16/20 (70.0%) NSCLC specimens compared with in non‑cancerous tissues, as revealed by RT‑qPCR (P<0.05). Overexpression of Ulk2 significantly inhibited the proliferation of A549 and H460 cells (P<0.05) and sensitized the NSCLC cell lines to cisplatin‑ and etoposide‑induced inhibition of proliferation, and to cisplatin‑induced apoptosis, with a significant difference identified compared with the ...