Effect of Adv Vector-mediated shRNA Targeting hTERT on Proliferation and Apoptosis of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Cells

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effect of targeting hTERT gene on the proliferation and apoptosis of CNE-2 cells by applying RNA interference to restrain the expression of hTERT in nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells.Methods Recombinant adenovirus vectors expressing EGFP and human TERT shRNA were construted and transfected in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells.The expression levels of hTERT mRNA and protein were detected respectively by RT-PCR and Western blot method.Cell proliferation was determined by CCK-8 assay and cell apoptosis was observed by FCM(Flow cytometric).Results The transfection rate of Adv-EGFP-shTERT recombinant adenovirus plasmid in CNE-2 cell line was more than 90 %.The expression levels of the hTERT mRNA and protein were dramatic declining respectively at 24h and 48h after transfection.Cell proliferation activity was significantly inhibited and the cell apoptosis reached 23.0%.Conclusion Adv vector-mediated RNAi targeting hTERT can inhibit the activity of telomerase reverse transcriptase by down-regulating the expression of the hTERT mRNA and its protein significantly,therefore can inhibit the growth of the cells and induce their apoptosis.Future application of RNAi to the gene therapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma might be expected.