CNTN-1 Upregulation Induced by Low-Dose Cisplatin Promotes Malignant Progression of Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells via Activation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

Abstract

Tumor metastasis and invasion are the main impediments to lung adenocarcinoma successful treatment. Previous studies demonstrate that chemotherapeutic agents can elevate the malignancy of cancer cells other than their therapeutic effects. In this study, the effects of transient low-dose cisplatin treatment on the malignant development of lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549) were detected, and the underlying epigenetic mechanisms were investigated. The findings showed that A549 cells exhibited epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-like phenotype along with malignant progression under the transient low-dose cisplatin treatment. Meanwhile, low-dose cisplatin was found to induce contactin-1 (CNTN-1) upregulation in A549 cells. Subsequently, we found that further overexpressing CNTN-1 in A549 cells obviously activated the EMT process in vitro and in vivo, and caused malignant development of A549 cells in vitro. Taken together, we conclude that low-dose cisplatin can activate the EMT process and resulting malignant progression through upregulating CNTN-1 in A549 cells. The findings provided new evidence that a low concentration of chemotherapeutic agents could facilitate the malignancy of carcinoma cells via activating the EMT process other than their therapeutic effects.

Keywords: A549 cell; CNTN-1; EMT; cisplatin; invasion; metastasis.