Effect of miR-155 knockdown on the reversal of doxorubicin resistance in human lung cancer A549/dox cells

Doxorubicin has been widely used in the treatment of cancer. However, acquired doxorubicin resistance severely hinders the application of the drug. In the present study, doxorubicin resistance was investigated in lung carcinoma. microRNA-155(miR-155) was found to be upregulated in the doxorubicin-resistant A549/dox cell line. Suppression of miR-155 in this cell line considerably reversed doxorubicin resistance, and doxorubicin-induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were recovered. Furthermore, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis revealed that miR-155 suppression downregulated the expression of multidrug resistance protein 1, multidrug resistance-associated protein 1, breast cancer resistance protein, glutathione S-transferase-p, Survivin and B-cell lymphoma 2, and upregulated the expression of caspase-3 and caspase-8. In addition, it was found that miR-155 suppression inhibited the activation of AKT and extracellular signal-regulated kinase. The transcriptional activity of nuclear factor-kappa B and activator protein-1 was also downregulated. In summary, the present results indicate that miR-155 may participate in doxorubicin resistance in lung carcinoma. The current study provides a novel target for lung carcinoma treatment.