Examining the effect of gene reduction in miR-95 and enhanced radiosensitivity in non-small cell lung cancer.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent a group of novel therapeutic small molecules involved in the management of lung cancer treatment. Our study aims to investigate the potential role of miRNAs in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Human miRNA microarray was performed in 60 recurrent NSCLC patient tissue samples following radiotherapy and their adjacent normal tissues. miRNA profiling results were validated using quantitative real-time PCR. Inner cell radiosensitivity and endogenous miRNA expression was determined by colony-formation assay and RT-PCR. We determined the effect of miRNA on cell proliferation, survival and metastasis; tumor xenografts were taken to identify the presence of miRNA in vivo. miRNA panel results indicated that a total of 14 miRNAs were differentially expressed in the recurrent NSCLC samples. In our study, miRNA-95 was highly overexpressed in recurrent NSCLC cells. Knockdown of miRNA-95 expression increased the radiosensitivity of NSCLC, promoted tumor cell apoptosis and decreased cellular proliferation. In vivo assays demonstrated reduced tumor growth and resistance to radiation in tumor xenografts by downregulating miRNA-95. Our study demonstrated a potential therapeutic measure of miRNA-95 as a radiosensitive marker for the treatment of non-small lung cancer.