CUL4A overexpression enhances lung tumor growth and sensitizes lung cancer cells to Erlotinib via transcriptional regulation of EGFR

BACKGROUND: CUL4A has been proposed as oncogene in several types of human cancer, but its clinical significance and functional role in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain unclear. METHODS: Expression level of CUL4A was examined by RT-PCR and Western blot. Forced expression of CUL4A was mediated by retroviruses, and CUL4A silencing by shRNAs expressing lentiviruses. Growth capacity of lung cancer cells was measured by MTT in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo, respectively. RESULTS: We found that CUL4A was highly expressed in human lung cancer tissues and lung cancer cell lines, and this elevated expression positively correlated with disease progression and prognosis. Overexpression of CUL4A in human lung cancer cell lines increased cell proliferation, inhibited apoptosis, and subsequently conferred resistance to chemotherapy. On other hand, silencing CUL4A expression in NSCLC cells reduced proliferation, promoted apoptosis and resulted in tumor growth inhibition in cancer xenograft model. Mechanistically, we revealed CUL4A regulated EGFR transcriptional expression and activation, and subsequently activated AKT. Targeted inhibition of EGFR activity blocked these CUL4A induced oncogenic activities. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the significance of CUL4A in NSCLC and suggest that CUL4A could be a promising therapy target and a potential biomarker for prognosis and EGFR target therapy in NSCLC patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1476-4598-13-252) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.