HOXA5 inhibits metastasis via regulating cytoskeletal remodelling and associates with prolonged survival in non-small-cell lung carcinoma

Homeobox genes comprise a family of regulatory genes that contain a common homeobox domain and act as transcription factors. Recent studies indicate that homeobox A5 (HOXA5) may serve as a tumour suppressor gene in breast cancers. However, the precise role and the underlying mechanism of HOXA5 in lung cancer remain unclear. Oligonucleotide microarrays and an invasion/metastasis lung adenocarcinoma cell line model were used to determine the correlation between HOXA5 expression and cancer cell invasion ability. We found that ectopic expression of HOXA5 in highly invasive cancer cells suppressed cell migration, invasion, and filopodia formation in vitro and inhibited metastatic potential in vivo. Knockdown of HOXA5 promoted the invasiveness of lung cancer cells. In addition, HOXA5 expression was associated with better clinical outcome in non-small cell lung cancer patients with wild-type EGFR. Furthermore, genome-wide transcriptomic and pathway analyses were performed to identify the potential molecular mechanisms. Our data showed that HOXA5 may bind to the promoters of the cytoskeleton-related genes and downregulate their mRNA and protein expression levels. Our studies provide new insights into how HOXA5 may contribute to the suppression of metastasis in lung cancer via cytoskeleton remodelling regulation. Therefore, targeted induction of HOXA5 may represent a promising approach for non-small-cell lung cancer therapy.