The Effect of Suppression Taurine on Relocation and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Mankind Lung Cancer Cells

Taurine is believed to have antioxidant properties and has been implicated in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and prostate cancer. This research focused on taurine inhibition effects of expression related to migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition- (EMT-) A549 study on related genes of human being non-small-cell lung cancer.

MTT assays assessed cell viability and a Radius^TM assay showed that taurine also inhibited the lung cancer cell migration. Using RT-PCR and Western blot, the migration and EMT markers were identified and evaluated.

We found that taurine significantly decreased the expression of migration markers matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). In contrast, TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1 (TIMP-1) and TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 2 (TIMP-2) expressions were increased with taurine treatment. In addition, we found an association between taurine treatment and the expression of EMT markers. The expression of epithelial marker E-cadherin and the mesenchymal marker N-cadherin TWIST-1 was decreased, but the expression of zinc finger protein SNAIL-1 and E-zinc finger homeobox 1 (ZEB-1) was increased.

Taken together, our study strongly suggests the therapeutic significance of taurine, which possesses antimigration activity and induces EMT markers expression in lung cancer cells.