C1QTNF6 as a novel biomarker regulates cellular behaviors in A549 cells and exacerbates the outcome of lung adenocarcinoma patients.

C1q/tumor necrosis factor-related protein 6 (C1QTNF6) is a member of the CTRP family and implicated to cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory reaction, and adipogenesis. However, the function of C1QTNF6 in lung adenocarcinoma remains unknown. We downloaded the expression profiles of C1QTNF6 from TCGA database and Oncomine dataset in order to analyze the relationship between C1QTNF6 expression level and tumorigenesis by bioinformatics methods, such as chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox regression analysis. In addition, we performed experiments to investigate the biological function of C1QTNF6 on cancer cells in vitro. The siRNA strategy was conducted to decrease the C1QTNF6 expression and then Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assay and wound-healing and transwell assays were to determine the proliferation, migration, and invasion. Western blot and qRT-PCR were used to confirm the expression levels. Based on the TCGA database and Oncomine dataset, we found that C1QTNF6 was over expressed in lung adenocarcinoma. The statistical data also showed that the high-regulated C1QTNF6 was related to poor prognosis in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Moreover, the capabilities of proliferation, migration, and invasion were inhibited owing to the knockdown of C1QTNF6 in lung adenocarcinoma cells. And the phosphorylation of MEK and ERK was blocked by treated si-C1QTNF6 compared with the GAPDH. In conclusion, aberrant C1QTNF6 expression was implicated in terrible prognosis accompanying with the damage of relevant cell potential in lung adenocarcinoma. C1QTNF6 might be an independent predictor of prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma.