miRNA-885-3p inhibits docetaxel chemoresistance in lung adenocarcinoma by downregulating Aurora A

Aurora A is a member of the mitotic serine/threonine kinase family. It is involved in key processes during mitosis and meiosis, and Aurora A upregulation is implicated in malignant transformation. In the present study, we revealed that Aurora A expression was significantly higher in docetaxel-resistant lung adenocarcinoma (LAD) cells than in parental cells. Higher levels of Aurora A expression were significantly correlated with higher chemoresistance and proliferation in LAD cells, while silencing Aurora A promoted caspase-3-dependent cell apoptosis by downregulating NF-B and Bcl-2 and upregulating Bax expression. In addition, an increased proportion of cells in the G2/M phase and a decreased proportion of cells in the S phase were observed due to the suppression of Aurora A. Furthermore, we identified that microRNA-885-3p (miR-885-3p) could target Aurora A directly. There was significantly lower miR-885-3p expression in docetaxel-resistant LAD cells than in parental LAD cells. miR-885-3p could modulate the docetaxel response, cell proliferation and apoptosis in LAD cells in vitro. Moreover, we found that Aurora A overexpression or miR-885-3p inhibition was associated with more aggressive behaviour in LAD cells. Thus, miR-885-3p/Aurora A may be involved in the chemoresistance of LAD cells, and assessing miR-885-3p/Aurora A expression may be a potential method for indicating chemosensitivity to docetaxel-based chemotherapy.