Quaking-5 suppresses aggressiveness of lung cancer cells through inhibiting β-catenin signaling pathway

Quaking-5 (QKI-5) belongs to the STAR (signal transduction and activation of RNA) family of RNA binding proteins and functions as a tumor suppressor in several human malignancies. In this study, we attempt to elucidate the role of QKI-5 in the pro-metastasis processes of lung cancer (LC) cells and the underlying mechanisms. We confirmed that QKI-5 was decreased in human LC tissues and cell lines, especially in high-metastatic cells. Moreover, QKI expression was positively correlated with LC patients’ survival. Functional studies verified that QKI-5 suppressed migration, invasion and TGF-β1-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of LC cells. Mechanistically, we affirmed that QKI-5 reduced β-catenin level in LC cells via suppressing its translation and promoting its degradation, whereas QKI-5 promoter hypermethylation suppressed QKI-5 expression. Our findings indicate that QKI-5 inhibits pro-metastasis processes of LC cells through interdicting β-catenin signaling pathway, and that QKI-5 promoter hypermethylation is a crucial epigenetic regulation reducing QKI-5 expression in LC cells, and reveal that QKI-5 is a potential prognostic biomarker for LC patients.