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Ubiquitin-specific protease 39 is overexpressed in human lung cancer and promotes tumor cell proliferation in vitro

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Abstract

Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer in the world. Previous studies have shown that ubiquitin-specific protease 39 (USP39) is upregulated in several cancers and associated with tumor malignant characters. However, the effects of USP39 in lung cancer have not been well understood. In the present study, we found USP39 was generally expressed higher in human lung cancer tissues than in normal tissues by Oncomine database mining, qRT-PCR, and western blot assay. Knockdown of USP39 expression markedly reduced the proliferative and colony-forming ability of lung cancer cell lines 95D and A549. Flow cytometric analysis showed that USP39 knockdown induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and enhanced cell apoptosis in 95D cells. Moreover, depletion of USP39 blocked activation of Akt, mTOR, p53, and PARP signaling pathways. Taken together, our study indicates that USP39 may be functionally involved in lung cancer growth and act as a potential molecular target for human lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (The regulative mechanism of PRDM14 gene and its methylation on non-small cell lung cancer metastasis. No. 81372521).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai First People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, No. 100, HaiNing Road, Shanghai, 200080, China

      Zhifeng Lin & Qiang Lin

    2. Department of Pulmonary, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, No. 241, West Huaihai Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

      Liwen Xiong

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    1. Zhifeng Lin
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    Correspondence to Qiang Lin.

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    All procedures performed were in conformity to the ethical standards of the institutional and national committee on human experimentation and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and later amendments. Ethical approval was given by the medical ethics committee of Shanghai First People’s Hospital with the following reference number: 2013KY036.

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    Zhifeng Lin and Liwen Xiong have contributed equally to this study.

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    Lin, Z., Xiong, L. & Lin, Q. Ubiquitin-specific protease 39 is overexpressed in human lung cancer and promotes tumor cell proliferation in vitro. Mol Cell Biochem 422, 97–107 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-016-2809-8

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