LncRNA AWPPH participates in the metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer by upregulating TGF-β1 expression

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) AWPPH is a characterized oncogenic lncRNA in hepatocellular carcinoma and bladder cancer. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential involvement of AWPPH in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Expression of AWPPH in lung biopsy tissues and serum of both healthy controls and patients with NSCLC with different tumor sizes, and with and without distant tumor metastasis was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. AWPPH expression vector was constructed and transfected into cells of human NSCLC cell lines. Expression of TGF-β1 was detected by western blot analysis. Cell migration and invasion were detected by Transwell migration and invasion assay. It was observed that AWPPH was significantly upregulated in patients with NSCLC, while AWPPH expression level did not increase with the increase of tumor size. In contrast, AWPPH expression levels were significantly higher in patients with distant metastasis than in patients without tumor distant metastasis. AWPPH overexpression promoted TGF-β1 expression in NSCLC cells, while TGF-β1 treatment showed no significant effects on AWPPH expression. AWPPH overexpression promoted NSCLC cell migration and invasion, while TGF-β signaling inhibition reduced this enhancing effect. Therefore, AWPPH may promote the metastasis, but not the growth of NSCLC by upregulating TGF-β1 expression.