Overexpression of the lung cancer-prognostic miR-146b microRNAs has a minimal and negative effect on the malignant phenotype of A549 lung cancer cells

Biological effects of overexpression of miR-146b microRNAs in the A549 human lung cancer cell-line was studied. A549 cells were engineered to express the precursor RNA (pre-miR-146b) that generates the miR-146b microRNAs. Control cells were engineered using the same gene expression plasmid (pLemiR, Open Biosystems®) but without the pre-miR-146b insert. The Trans-Lentiviral GIPZ™ packaging system (Open Biosystems®) was used to generate stable transfectant populations of the engineered cells. Gene expression was compared between A549 stable transfectants of empty pLemiR plasmid (A549/vec cells) or of the pLemiR plasmid containing an insert for overexpressing human pre-miR-146b (A549/146b cells). Two different cell cultures were used for each cell-line (for biological replicates).