Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 decreases the chemosensitivity of gastric cancer cells via regulating P-glycoprotein expression

Drug resistance remains to be one of the major challenges in clinical treatment of gastric cancer (GC). Accumulating evidences have highlighted the involvement of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in carcinogenesis, chemoresistance, and metastasis. NEAT1, a recently identified lncRNA, was identified as an oncogene to regulate carcinogenesis. This present study aimed to investigate the role of NEAT1 in the drug resistance in GC. Our study found that NEAT1 expression was significantly upregulated in relapsed GC patients and cisplatin (CDDP)-resistant cell lines compared with primary GC patients and parental GC cell lines. NEAT1 upregulation was largely companied with the induction of P-gp. Overexpression of NEAT1 significantly increased the expression of several drug-resistance proteins, thereby compromising the sensitivity of GC cells to CDDP. In contrast, NEAT1 knockdown by RNAi did the opposite. Therefore, lncRNA NEAT1 is an important modulator for drug resistance of GC via promoting the expression of P-gp and other associated proteins.