tsRNA-5001a promotes proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma cells and is associated with postoperative recurrence in lung adenocarcinoma patients

Background: The biological role and clinical significance of transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) remain largely unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the biological function, molecular mechanism, and clinical significance of tsRNA-5001a in lung adenocarcinoma. Methods: The function of tsRNA-5001a on the growth of tumor cells was accessed by cell function experiments. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to detect the expression of tsRNA-5001a in paired samples of lung adenocarcinoma. Cell localization of tsRNA-5001a was performed by nuclear-cytoplasmic separation assay. Transcriptome sequencing was used to screen the molecules involved in the regulatory network of tsRNA-5001a. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the two groups. Prism software (Prism 7.0) was used to analyze the statistical results. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: tsRNA-5001a was significantly upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma tissues. Upregulation of tsRNA-5001a was found to increase the risk of postoperative recurrences in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and was associated with poor prognosis. Function assay showed that overexpression tsRNA5001a could significantly promote cell proliferation. In contrast, knockdown of tsRNA-5001a significantly inhibited the proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma cells. In addition, nucleoplasmic isolation assay indicated that tsRNA-5001a was located mainly in the cytoplasm. According to the results of RNA sequencing and The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA database) analysis, growth arrest and DNA damage 45G (GADD45G) was screened and may be the target gene of tsRNA-5001a. Conclusions: tsRNA-5001a promotes the proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma cells and increases the risk of postoperative recurrences in lung adenocarcinoma patients.