To investigate the effects of almonertinib on the proliferation, invasion, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and stemness of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells by regulating microRNA-22 (miR-22) targeting ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2O (UBE2O).

Human lung adenocarcinoma cell line NCI-H1975 was randomly divided into control group (normal culture with no treatment), medium-dose group (4 μmol·L^-1 almonertinib), inhibitor negative control (NC inhibitor) group (4 μmol·L^-1 almonertinib + miR-22 inhibition negative control), miR-22 inhibitor group (4 μmol·L^-1 almonertinib + miR-22 inhibition), miR-22 inhibitor+short hairpin negative control (sh-NC) group (4 μmol·L^-1 almonertinib + miR-22 inhibition + short hairpin negative control), and miR-22 inhibitor+short hairpin UBE2O (sh-UBE2O) group (4 μmol·L^-1 almonertinib + miR-22 inhibition + short hairpin UBE2O). The expression of miR-22 was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) ; Western blot analysis was performed to detect the expression of octamer-binding transcription factor 4 (OCT4), SRY-Box transcription factor 2 (SOX2), and Nanog; the cell proliferation rate was assessed using the 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay; and Transwell assays were conducted to evaluate cell invasion ability.

The expression levels of miR-22 in the control group, medium-dose group were 1.00±0.16, 2.07±0.34. The expression levels of OCT4 in the control group, medium-dose group, NC inhibitor group, and miR-22 inhibitor group were 1.00±0.16, 0.63±0.09, 0.67±0.08 and 0.94±0.12, respectively; SOX2 expression levels were 1.00±0.14, 0.48±0.06, 0.54±0.07 and 0.81±0.11; and Nanog expression levels were 1.00±0.18, 0.45±0.08, 0.52±0.11 and 0.89±0.15. The cell proliferation rates in the control group, medium-dose group, NC inhibitor group, miR-22 inhibitor group, miR-22 inhibitor+sh-NC group, and miR-22 inhibitor+sh-UBE2O group were (87.29±10.73)%, (41.65±7.82)%, (48.47±6.54)%, (79.31±10.26)%, (84.50±11.98)% and (36.82±6.79)%, respectively. The numbers of invading cells were (156.92±24.81), (72.53±9.06), (64.41±10.75), (143.27±26.19), (137.58±21.46) and (75.23±11.94), respectively. Compared between the control group and medium-dose group, NC inhibitor and miR-22 inhibitor groups, as well as miR-22 inhibitor+sh-NC and miR-22 inhibitor+sh-UBE2O groups showed statistically significant differences (all P<0.05).

Almonertinib can inhibit the proliferation and invasion of NSCLC NCI-H1975 cells, likely by regulating miR-22 to target UBE2O.