Insight into the potential antineoplastic mechanism of phycocyanin in non-small cell lung carcinoma A549 cells based on micro-RNA sequencing

Abstract

Phycocyanin is a type of marine functional food additive, exerting good antitumor property. However, its antineoplastic mechanism in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. In this work, a high-throughput micro-RNA sequencing was employed to analyze key miRNAs regulated by phycocyanin in A549 cells for the first time. Results showed that a total of 61 miRNAs were differentially expressed between control and phycocyanin-treated cells, including 18 up-regulated and 43 down-regulated miRNAs. Subsequently, 483 validated target genes were predicted. Strikingly, protein–protein interaction analysis showed that target genes like EGFR, CDK2, POLR2E, TP53, and MED28 occupied high degrees in networks, which were predicted regulated by miR-1249-5p, miR-1231, miR-547-5p, and miR-93-5p. Furthermore, qRT-PCR showed strong consistent expression trends of differential miRNAs with miRNA-seq results. Consequently, this study significantly advances our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of phycocyanin, especially with regard to miRNAs, and also lays a theoretical foundation for the treatment of NSCLC.

Keywords

• Phycocyanin
• miRNA-seq
• mirco-RNA
• Non-small cell lung cancer
• A549 cells