In bronchial epithelial cells, PM2.5, diesel-exhausted particles PM2.5, and diesel-exhausted particles exposure silenced the miR-345-5p by the overexpression of lncRNA SOX2 overlapping transcript (SOX2-OT) and finally targeting the EGFR pathway in lung cancer development (Fu et al., 2021). Here, SOX2 is linked to lung cancer.