miR-6077 promotes cisplatin/pemetrexed resistance in lung adenocarcinoma via CDKN1A/cell cycle arrest and KEAP1/ferroptosis pathways

Abstract

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Combination chemotherapy with cisplatin (CDDP) plus pemetrexed (PEM) remains the predominant therapeutic regimen; however, chemoresistance greatly limits its curative potential. Here, through CRISPR-Cas9 screening, we identified miR-6077 as a key driver of CDDP/PEM resistance in LUAD. Functional experiments verified that ectopic overexpression of miR-6077 desensitized LUAD cells to CDDP/PEM in both cell lines and patient-derived xenograft models. Through RNA sequencing in cells and single-cell sequencing of samples from patients with CDDP/PEM treatments, we observed CDDP/PEM-induced upregulation of CDKN1A and KEAP1, which in turn activated cell-cycle arrest and ferroptosis, respectively, thus leading to cell death. Through miRNA pull-down, we identified and validated that miR-6077 targets CDKN1A and KEAP1. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-6077 protects LUAD cells from cell death induced by CDDP/PEM via CDKN1A-CDK1-mediated cell-cycle arrest and KEAP1-NRF2-SLC7A11/NQO1-mediated ferroptosis, thus resulting in chemoresistance in multiple LUAD cells both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we found that GMDS-AS1 and LINC01128 sensitized LUAD cells to CDDP/PEM by sponging miR-6077. Collectively, these results imply the critical role of miR-6077 in LUAD’s sensitivity to CDDP/PEM, thus providing a novel therapeutic strategy for overcoming chemoresistance in clinical practice.

Keywords

• MT: Non-coding RNAs
• miRNA
• cisplatin
• pemetrexed
• chemoresistance
• CRISPR-Cas9