Melittin-induced long non-coding RNA NONHSAT105177 inhibits proliferation and migration of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in the pathogenesis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Previously, we found that melittin treatment suppressed PDAC tumor growth. However, it is unclear whether lncRNAs have any role in the melittin-induced suppression of PDAC. In this study, we used microarray data to identify 844 lncRNAs that were significantly differentially expressed in response to melittin treatment. Of these lncRNAs, we focused on the lncRNA NONHSAT105177, which had about a 22-fold increase in expression with melittin treatment. We found that melittin treatment increased NONHSAT105177 expression in PDAC cell lines but not in normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cell line. NONHSAT105177 expression was significantly lower in PDAC cancer tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues. Additionally, overexpression of NONHSAT105177 inhibited PDAC cell proliferation, migration, and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), both in vitro and in vivo. Consistent with the mechanism of action of melittin, NONHSAT105177 significantly downregulated cholesterol pathway genes, including Clusterin (CLU). Moreover, we found that NONHSAT105177 trafficking was mediated by exosomes. The combined findings of our current and previous studies suggest that NONHSAT105177 mediated the melittin-induced inhibition of PDAC cell growth and metastasis, which indicated a potential target for developing new strategies.