Upregulation and clinicopathological significance of long non-coding NEAT1 RNA in NSCLC tissues

Recent reports have shown that nuclear enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1), a long non- coding RNA (lncRNA), contributes to the precise control of gene expression and is related to several human malignancies. However, limited data are available on the expression and function of NEAT1 in lung cancer. The major objective of the current study was to profile the expression and clinicopathological significance of NEAT1 in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs).

NEAT1 expression in 125 NSCLC cases and paired adjacent non-cancer tissues was assessed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR). Relationships between NEAT1 and clinicopathological factors were also investigated.

The relative level of NEAT1 was 6.98±3.74 in NSCLC tissues, significantly elevated as compared to that of the adjacent non-cancer lung tissues (4.83±2.98, p<0.001). The area under curve (AUC) of high expression of NEAT1 to diagnose NSCLC was 0.684 (95% CI: 0.619~0.750, p<0.001). NEAT1 expression was positively correlated with patient age (r=-2.007, p=0.047), lymphatic metastasis (r=-2.731, p=0.007), vascular invasion (r=-3.617, p=0.001) and clinical TNM stage (r=-4.134, p<0.001).

This study indicates that NEAT1 might be associated with oncogenesis and progression in NSCLC, and suggests application in molecular targeted therapy.