Evidence of Y Chromosome LncRNAs involved in Radiation Response of Male Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Numerous studies have implicated changes in the Y chromosome in male cancers, however few have investigated the biological importance of Y chromosome non-coding RNAs. Here, we demonstrate a group of Y chromosome-expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in male non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) radiation sensitivity. Radiosensitive male NSCLC cell lines demonstrated a dose-dependent induction of linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 following irradiation, not observed in radioresistant male NSCLC cell lines. Cytogenetics revealed the loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in the radioresistant male NSCLC cell lines. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments indicated that linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 transcripts affect cell viability and apoptosis. UV Cross-linking and Immunoprecipitation (CLIP) and RNA stability assays identify IGF2BP3 as a binding partner for the linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 RNAs which alters the half-life of the anti-apoptotic HMGA2 mRNA as well as the oncogenic c-MYC mRNA. To assess the clinical relevance of these findings, we examined the presence of the Y chromosome in NSCLC tissue microarrays and the expression of linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 in NSCLC RNAseq and microarray data. We observed a negative correlation between the loss of the Y chromosome or linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 and overall survival. Thus, linc-SPRY3-2/3/4 expression and LOY could represent an important marker of radiation therapy in NSCLC. To measure global lncRNA expression changes after 7Gy of radiation, we used the GeneChip® Human Transcriptome Array 2.0 in the NSCLC cell line H460 with 7Gy of radiation (H460_7Gy) or without radiation (H460_Control). The experiments was done in triplicates