The Effects of Lentivirus-Mediated Gene Silencing of on the Stemness Capability of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Retinoic acid receptor beta is a nuclear receptor protein that binds to retinoic acid (RA) to mediate cellular signalling in embryogenic morphogenesis, cell growth, and differentiation. However, the function of in cancer stem cells (CSCs) has yet to be determined. This study aimed to understand the role of in regulating cell growth and differentiation of lung cancer stem cells. Based on the clonogenic assay, spheroid assay, mRNA levels of stem cell transcription factors, and cell cycle being arrested at the G0/G1 phase, the suppression of resulted in significant inhibition of A549 parental cell growth. This finding was contradictory to the results seen in CSCs, where inhibition enhanced the cell growth of putative and non-putative CSCs. These results suggest that suppression may act as an essential regulator in A549 parental cells, but not in the CSCs population. The findings in this study demonstrated that the loss of promotes tumorigenicity in CSCs. Microarray analysis revealed that various cancer pathways were significantly activated following the suppression of . The changes seen might compensate for the loss of function, CSCs population's aggressiveness, which led to the CSCs population's aggressiveness. Thus, understanding the role of in regulating the stemness of CSCs may lead to targeted therapy for lung CSCs.