P5CR1 protein expression and the effect of gene-silencing on lung adenocarcinoma

PeerJ. 2019 May 14:7:e6934. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6934. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the expression of pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (P5CR1) protein in lung adenocarcinoma and paracancerous tissues and to explore the effect of silencing the encoding gene PYCR1 on the proliferation, migration, invasion, and cisplatin sensitivity in lung adenocarcinoma cells, thereby providing a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of the disease. Immunohistochemistry staining was used to detect the P5CR1 protein expression in lung adenocarcinoma and paracancerous tissues, and statistical analysis evaluated the correlation between P5CR1 protein expression and gender, age, tissue part, or pathological grade. The CCK8 assay was performed to detect the proliferation and cisplatin sensitivity, while the effect of PYCR1 on the migration and invasion of lung adenocarcinoma cells was detected by scratch test and transwell chamber assay. The findings demonstrated that the P5CR1 protein expression was significantly elevated in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and correlated with the pathological grade, whereas no significant correlation was established between the protein expression and gender, age, or tissue part. Furthermore, after PYCR1 gene silencing, the proliferation and invasion were significantly suppressed, while the sensitivity to cisplatin was significantly enhanced. Therefore, it can be speculated that the PYCR1 gene affects the biological behavior of lung adenocarcinoma and cisplatin resistance, serving as a potential therapeutic target for lung adenocarcinoma.

Keywords: Cisplatin resistance; Invasion; Lung adenocarcinoma; Migration; PYCR1 gene; Proliferation.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Finance Science and Technology Project of Hainan Province (No. ZDYF2018132). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.