Abstract
BackgroundEpstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection is causatively associated with a variety of human cancers, including gastric cancer (GC), which has one of the highest mortality rates of all human cancers. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) show important regulatory roles in human GC. SNHG8 is a recently identified lncRNA that was reported to show abnormal expression pattern in GC. However, little is known of its biological function in EBV-associated GC.MethodsWe used cell viability, colony formation and cell cycle assays to investigate the roles of lncRNA SNHG8 in the cell growth of EBV-associated GC.ResultsThe transcript levels of SNHG8 in the cultured EBV-associated GC cells were significantly higher in the cultured EBV-associated GC cells compared with the levels in normal human gastric mucosal cells and EBV-negative GC cells. Knockdown of SNHG8 with specific shRNAs inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation and arrested the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase in vitro. We also found that knockdown of SNHG8 suppressed tumor growth in vivo.ConclusionsThese data indicate the pro-oncogenic potential of SNHG8 in EBV-associated GC, meaning it is a latent therapeutic target for the treatment of this type of cancer.
Highlights
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection is causatively associated with a variety of human cancers, including gastric cancer (GC), which has one of the highest mortality rates of all human cancers
SNHG8 expression was upregulated in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated GC cells To investigate the roles of the Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) SNHG8 in EBV-associated GC pathogenesis, the expression of SNHG8 in EBV-associated GC cell lines was assessed using qRT-PCR (Fig. 1)
GT38 cells were arrested in G0/G1 phase after knockdown of SNHG8 Having found the effect of SNHG8 downregulation on the proliferation of the EBVassociated GC cell line GT38, we examined the impact of decreased expression of SNHG8 on the cell cycle
Summary
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection is causatively associated with a variety of human cancers, including gastric cancer (GC), which has one of the highest mortality rates of all human cancers. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a gamma herpes virus that infects over 90% of the world’s adult population. It can exist asymptomatically in the human system for a long time [1, 2]. A number of human malignancies are reported to be associated with EBV infection, including multiple types of Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, nasal natural killer/ T-cell lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and gastric carcinoma (GC) [3,4,5,6,7]. A recent study suggested that this 10% estimate might be too low, as 48/75 GC cases in the U.S (64%) and 38/38 in Central America (100%) showed positive for EBV.
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