Anti-cancer effect of low dose of celecoxib may be associated with lnc-SCD-1:13 and lnc-PTMS-1:3 but not COX-2 in NCI-N87 cells.

In order to investigate the mechanism of celecoxib and whether long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were involved in the effects of celecoxib treatment in NCI-N87 cells, NCI-N87 cells were treated with 15, 30 and 60 µM celecoxib and an MTT assay was performed to assess cell viability. Following treatment with 15 µM celecoxib, the cell cycle and apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry, and the mRNA levels of lnc-SCD-1:13, lnc-PTMS-1:3, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), integrin α3 (ITGA3) and DSH homolog 1 (DVL1) were detected by reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in NCI-N87 cells. MTT analysis demonstrated that celecoxib significantly inhibited cell viability in treated cells compared with untreated cells. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that, compared with untreated cells, the percentage of cells in the G0/G1 phase was significantly increased, and the percentage of cells in the S and G2 phase was decreased. In addition, the percentage of early and late apoptotic cells was increased in cells treated with 15 µM celecoxib compared with the control. RT-qPCR analysis also demonstrated that the mRNA levels of lnc-SCD-1:13, lnc-PTMS-1:3, ITGA3 and DVL1 were increased following treatment with celecoxib (15 µM; P<0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the expression of COX-2 mRNA between cells treated with celecoxib (15 µM) and untreated cells. The present study demonstrated that a low dose of celecoxib may be involved in regulating cell growth independent of COX-2 in NCI-N87 cells. Furthermore, ITGA3 and/or DVL1 co-expressed with lnc-SCD-1:13 and lnc-PTMS-1:3 may be associated with the effects of treatment with a low dose of celecoxib in NCI-N87 cells.