Overexpression of long non-coding RNA KCNQ1OT1 is related to good prognosis via inhibiting cell proliferation in non-small cell lung cancer: KCNQ1OT1 inhibits lung cancer growth

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer (LC) is the most common malignancy in the world. Many long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be associated with LC; however, the function of KCNQ1OT1 in LC requires exploration. METHODS: We conducted in silico analysis with data from The Cancer Genome Atlas to investigate the association between KCNQ1OT1 and LC. A Kaplan-Meier plotter was used to analyze the function of KCNQ1OT1 on LC patient prognosis. Quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to confirm previous results. An A549 lung cancer cell was transfected with pcDNA-KCNQ1OT1, and methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay was performed to investigate the function of KCNQ1OT1 on cell proliferation. in vivo assay was performed with nude mice. RESULTS: Bioinformatics analysis and qRT-PCR indicated that KCNQ1OT1 expression was higher in stage I LC patients (P   0.05). KCNQ1OT1 overexpression significantly inhibited cell proliferation and tumor growth in vitro and in vivo (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Our preliminary data showed that KCNQ1OT1 is overexpressed in early stage LC and is correlated with better prognosis in LC patients, possibly by suppressing cell proliferation.