RASL10A, a member of the RAS subfamily of small GTPases, suppresses the EMT and invasion of human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the most frequently diagnosed form of non-small cell lung cancer and is known to develop distant metastases, such as brain and bone metastases, which can considerably affect the prognosis of patients. Therefore, there is a need to elucidate the metastatic mechanisms of LUAD and establish treatments to control metastasis. In this study, Kaplan-Meier plotter analysis demonstrated that patients with LUAD and low RASL10A expression have a poor prognosis. Furthermore, loss or gain of function experiments revealed that RASL10A suppresses transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the subsequent invasion of LUAD A549 cells. In addition, we found that RASL10A suppresses Smad3 phosphorylation and Snail expression during the early stages of EMT. These results indicate that RASL10A is a novel factor that inhibits TGF-β signaling-mediated EMT and invasion in A549 cells. RASL10A has the potential to become a new therapeutic target for patients with LUAD.