Transwell assays showed that cell migration was markedly suppressed when ALKBH5 was downregulated in A549 and H1975 cells (Fig. 2E, F) Compared with lung cancer cell lines, we also examined the roles of ALKBH5 in 16HBE cells, but we found ALKBH5 knockdown did not affect the proliferation and migration of 16HBE cells obviously (Additional file 1: Fig. S1). The gene discussed is ALKBH5; the disease is lung cancer.