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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 24|pp 25599—25613

Silencing hTERT attenuates cancer stem cell-like characteristics and radioresistance in the radioresistant nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2R

Kaihua Chen1, Ling Li1,2,3, Song Qu1,2,3, Xinbin Pan1, Yongchu Sun1, Fangzhu Wan1, Binbin Yu1, Lei Zhou1, Xiaodong Zhu1,2,3
  • 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China
  • 2Key Laboratory of Early Prevention and Treatment for Regional High Frequency Tumor (Guangxi Medical University), Ministry of Education, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China
  • 3Guangxi Key Laboratory of Early Prevention and Treatment for Regional High Frequency Tumor, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China
Received: September 18, 2019Accepted: September 18, 2020Published: November 24, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.104167

Copyright: © 2020 Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effect of silencing hTERT on the CSC-like characteristics and radioresistance of CNE-2R cells.

Results: Silencing hTERT suppressed CNE-2R cell proliferation and increased the cell apoptosis rate and radiosensitivity in vitro. Moreover, it could also inhibit the growth of xenografts and increase the apoptosis index and radiosensitivity in vivo. Further study discovered that after silencing hTERT, telomerase activity in CNE-2R cells was markedly suppressed, along with remarkably down-regulated stem cell-related protein levels both in vitro and in vivo.

Conclusion: Silencing hTERT can suppress the CSC-like characteristics of CNE-2R cells to enhance their radiosensitivity, revealing that hTERT may become a potential target for treating radioresistant NPC.

Methods: An RNAi lentiviral vector specific to the hTERT gene was constructed to infect CNE-2R cells, the hTERT silencing effect was verified through qPCR and Western blot assays, and telomerase activity was detected by PCR-ELISA. Moreover, radiosensitivity in vitro was detected through colony formation assays, CCK-8 assays and flow cytometry. Tumor growth and radioresistance were also evaluated using xenograft models, while the apoptosis index in xenografts was measured through TUNEL assay. Levels of stem cell-related proteins were determined in vitro and in vivo.