Downregulated Mucin 1 alleviates paclitaxel resistance in non‑small cell lung cancer cells.

Multidrug resistance of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a common clinical problem, which is one of the main reasons leading to the failure of chemotherapy. Therefore, how to overcome or prevent drug resistance has become a hot and difficult issue in clinical research. The present study was designed to investigate the expression patterns, functions and underlying mechanisms of MUC1 in regulating paclitaxel-resistant cell line A549/PR in NSCLC. RT-qPCR and western blot was performed to determine the mRNA and protein level, respectively. CCK-8 was conducted to determine the cell viability of A549/PR cells. Moreover, flow cytometry assay was applied to examine the apoptosis rate of A549/PR. Herein, the MUC1 was over-expressed in clinic NSCLC tissues and A549/PR cells. Silence of MUC1 could obviously suppress the proliferation and promote apoptosis of A549/PR cells in treatment of paclitaxel through up-regulating the expression of Bax and Caspase-3, and down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2, suggesting that chemotherapy combined with the modulation of MUC1 might be characterized as a promising therapeutic approach to overcome paclitaxel-resistance in NSCLC in the future.