Long non-coding RNA, CHRF, predicts poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma and promotes cell proliferation and migration

Research has demonstrated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are crucial factors in carcinogenesis. LncRNA, cardiac hypertrophy-related factor (CHRF), has been demonstrated to act as an oncogene in a variety of types of tumor. However, its biological function in lung adenocarcinoma remains to be elucidated. The present study aimed to examine the level of CHRF expression in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and cell lines, and to analyze the association between CHRF and clinicopathological characteristics, as well prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Loss-of-function assays were performed to determine the biological function of CHRF. The expression of CHRF was markedly upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma tissues and cell lines. Patients exhibiting upregulated CHRF also demonstrated advanced Tumor-Node-Metastasis stage, lymph node metastasis and larger tumor size compared with those exhibiting downregulated CHRF. Results of Cox proportional hazards regression analysis suggested that highly-expressed CHRF may be regarded as an independent prognostic factor of prognosis. In addition, loss-of-function assays indicated that downregulation of CHRF suppressed cell proliferation, migration and invasion, and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Western blotting revealed that the phosphoinositide-3-kinase/Akt signaling pathway activity is reduced in lung adenocarcinoma following the knockdown of CHRF. Together, these results indicate that lncRNA, CHRF, may serve a critical role in the development and progression of lung adenocarcinoma, and may act as a novel prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in lung adenocarcinoma.