Upregulation of Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specific Factor 4 in Lung Adenocarcinoma and Its Critical Role for Cancer Cell Survival and Proliferation

Cleavage and polyadenylation specific factor 4 (CPSF4), a member of CPSF complex, plays a key role in mRNA polyadenylation and mRNA 3′ ends maturation. However, its possible role in lung cancer pathogenesis is unknown. In this study, we investigated the biological role and clinical significance of CPSF4 in lung cancer growth and survival and elucidated its underlying molecular mechanisms. We found that CPSF4 was highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines and tumor tissue but was undetectable in 8 normal human tissues. We also found that CPSF4 overexpression was correlated with poor overall survival in patients with lung adenocarcinomas (P<0.001). Multivariate survival analyses revealed that higher CPSF4 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of the patients with lung adenocarcinomas. Suppression of CPSF4 by siRNA inhibited lung cancer cells proliferation, colony formation, and induced apoptosis. Mechanism studies revealed that these effects were achieved through simultaneous modulation of multiple signaling pathways. Knockdown of CPSF4 expression by siRNA markedly inhibited the phosphorylation of PI3K, AKT and ERK1/2 and JNK proteins. In contrast, the ectopic expression of CPSF4 had the opposite effects. Moreover, CPSF4 knockdown also induced the cleavage of caspase-3 and caspse-9 proteins. Collectively, these results demonstrate that CPSF4 plays a critical role in regulating lung cancer cell proliferation and survival and may be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for lung adenocarcinoma.