Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death worldwide, with a continue-rising incidence. The proliferating cell nuclear antigen binding protein KIAA0101 is highly expressed in various types of cancer, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its biological role and underlying mechanisms in NSCLC remains unclear. We downloaded KIAA0101 mRNA and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), and verified the KIAA0101 expression by conducting experiments of immunochemistry (IHC), immunofluorescence (IF), quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and western-blot. Functional experiments were performed to explore the biological roles in vitro and in vivo . The results showed that KIAA0101 was overexpressed in NSCLC tissues and cell lines. High KIAA0101 expression was associated with high T stage, nodal invasion, advanced tumor stage, and poor overall survival ( P <0.01). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that KIAA0101 could distinguish NSCLC from paired normal tissues with statistical significance (AUC=0.969, P <0.001). The multivariate analysis revealed that KIAA0101 was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (HR=1.249, 95% CI: 1.001-1.559, P =0.049). Furthermore, KIAA0101 knockdown induced G1 phase cell cycle arrest and inhibited NSCLC cell proliferation and migration. We also found that the depletion of KIAA0101 decreased tumor volume in nude mice. In summary, our findings suggested that KIAA0101 was a reliable diagnostic and prognostic factor in NSCLC, with potential to be a promising treatment target.