Genome-wide identification of transcription factors that are critical to non-small cell lung cancer

To systematically unveil transcription factors (TFs) that are critical to lung carcinogenesis, here we conducted a genome-wide lethality screening in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells and reported that among the 1530 TFs tested, 21 genes were required for NSCLC cell proliferation and were negatively or positively associated with overall survival (OS) of patients with NSCLC. These included 11 potential tumor suppressing genes (AFF3, AhR, AR, CBFA2T3, CHD4, KANK2, NR3C2, PTEN, PRDM16, RB1, and STK11) and 10 potential oncogenic TFs (BARX1, DLX6, ELF3, EN1, ETV1, FOXE1, HOXB7, IRX4, IRX5, and SALL1). The expression levels of IRX5 were positively associated with OS of smoker and inversely associated with OS of non-smoker patients with lung adenocarcinoma. We showed that tobacco carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) induced upregulation of IRX5 in lung epithelial cells, and Cyclin D1 was a downstream target of IRX5. Furthermore, silencing of IRX5 by lentivirus mediated transfection of short hairpin RNA significantly inhibited tumor growth in nude mice. These results indicate that tobacco smoke can modulate TFs to facilitate lung carcinogenesis, and inhibition of IRX5 may have therapeutic potentials in NSCLCs. •To identify transcription factors (TFs) that are critical to lung carcinogenesis, 1530 TFs were silenced by siRNAs.•Eleven potential tumor suppressing TFs and 10 potential oncogenic TFs were unveiled.•IRX5 was required for lung cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo.•IRX5 was upregulated by tobacco carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene, and Cyclin D1 was a downstream target of this TF.