Author(s)

Fenmiao Zhong, Ruiqi Wang, Zhiming Zhang

Corresponding Author

Fenmiao Zhong

ABSTRACT

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. Non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer. (accounting for more than 85% of total lung cancer). Drug resistance, a major obstacle to successful cancer chemotherapy, frequently occurs in recurrent or metastatic lung cancer and results in poor clinical response. Clinically, with lung cancer patients develop drug resistance, the tissue of their primary lesions shows a stronger ability to invade and metastasize. Autophagy is a conservative catabolic process that acts as a “housekeeper” in eliminating protein aggregates and in organelles. Autophagy is closely related to cancer tumorigenesis. However, it is still unclear whether autophagy plays a role in lung cancer resistance. The subject of the experiment was studied by using a non-small cell lung cancer cell line A549 and its cisplatin-resistant cell line A549 DDP. The cell migration assay was used to detect the function of tumor cells, and autophagy flux was observed by immunoblotting. After blocking with the autophagy inhibitor Chloroquine, the migration ability of the tumor cells was examined. The results showed that A549 DDP resistance to cisplatin was significantly improved compared with A549, and migration ability of A549 DDP was stronger than that of A549, and the level of autophagy was also enhanced significantly. After autophagy was blocked by Chloroquine, the migration ability was reduced significantly. These indicate that an increase in autophagy activity contributes to maintaining the migration of drug-resistant cell lines.

KEYWORDS

Non-small cell lung cancer, Migration, Lung cancer resistance, Autophagy