[Antisense oligonucleotide targeting survivin affects the proliferation and apoptosis of SMMC-7721 cells].

Survivin is a member of inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family which has strong ability of antiapoptosis. Survivin is prominently expressed in transformed cell lines and in all the most common human cancers in vivo, but it is undetectable in terminally differentiated adult tissues. We designed a human survivin antisense oligonucleotides. RT-PCR and Western blot clearly showed that survivin mRNA and protein were decreased by this antisense oligonucleotide. The inhibition of SMMC-7721 cell proliferation was demonstrated by MTT assay. The inhibition rate (43.28% +/- 3.65%) was much higher than the inhibition rate (6.76% +/- 0.92%) of the control group. The apoptosis rate (33.68% +/- 2.89%) obtained by transfecting cells with the use of antisense oligonucleotide was higher than the apoptosis rate (14.12% +/- 1.24%) of the control group. And the result of TUNEL revealed that, when SMMC-7721 cells were exposed to homoharringtoine at low concentration and were transfected by antisense oligonucleotide, the apoptosis rate of the cells was significantly higher than that of other control group. These results indicate that antisense oligonucleotide may have the potential for selective tumor therapy in future.