Small Nucleolar RNA 71A Promotes Lung Cancer Cell Proliferation,Migration And Invasion Via MAPK/ERK Pathway

Objective Small nucleolar RNAs(snoRNAs)are a group of small non-coding RNAs that are located in the nucleolus of eukaryocyte.They were considered as housekeeping genes since they were discovered and played roles in catalyzing pseudouridylation and 2'-O-ribose methylation of ribosomal RNA(r RNA).Increasing evidence suggested that dysregulated snoRNAs were involved in human disease especially in tumor development.The role of snoRNA 71A(SNORA71A)in the progression of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)remained unclear.Methods Dataset GSE19188 from Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO)database was downloaded to detect the expression levels of SNORA71A in NSCLC tissues.Weighted gene co-expression network analysis(WGCNA)was used to construct the SNORA71A co-expression network.The biological significance of SNORA71A was explored by loss-of-function analysis both in vitro and in vivo.Results SNORA71A co-expressing network indicated that SNORA71A was involved in brain tissue development,synaptic signaling,biochemical potential regulation,and negative regulation of mesenchymal cell apoptosis,etc.SNORA71A was overexpressed in NSCLC tissues compared with normal tissues,and upregulated SNORA71A was significantly associated with worse survival of NSCLC patients.Knockdown of SNORA71A suppressed proliferation of both A549 and PC9 cells,and induced G0/G1 phase arrest.Knockdown of SNORA71A also suppressed xenograft tumor growth in mice.In addition,knockdown of SNORA71A inhibited cell invasion and migration and suppressed epithelial-mesenchymal transition.Furthermore,downregulated SNORA71A decreased the phosphorylation of MEK and ERK1/2 in the MAPK/ERK signal pathway.Conclusion SNORA71A functions as an oncogene in NSCLC and may serve as a therapeutic target and promising prognostic biomarker of NSCLC.