反义hTERT体外抑制白血病细胞增殖的研究

Antisense human telomerase reverse transcriptase inhibits leukemia cell proliferation in vitro

目的研究反义hTERT基因对白血病细胞体外增殖的抑制作用。方法体外通过SuperFect将已构建好的正、反义hTERT真核表达载体转染HL60白血病细胞,再经过G418及PCR筛选鉴定分别转入了正、反义hTERT载体的抗性克隆细胞HL60-s和HL60-as。随后运用实时荧光定量RT-PCR技术及TRAP-银染法对各组细胞内源性hTERT mRNA的表达情况及端粒酶的活性进行检测。同时还采用MTT法、双层软琼脂克隆形成试验、流式细胞术观察和分析反义hTERT对白血病细胞体外生长增殖活力的影响及是否能诱导瘤细胞的凋亡。结果与空白对照、正义hTERT组相比,反义hTERT能显著地降低HL60细胞内源性hTERT mRNA的表达(P<0.01)和下调端粒酶活性。当各组细胞传至第25代后,与HL60、HL60-s比较,HL60-as细胞的生长速度和集落形成能力明显地减慢和降低,同时伴有凋亡率的显著增加。结论反义hTERT在体外能抑制白血病细胞的生长增殖能力,其潜在、广谱的抗肿瘤作用的分子生物学机制可能是首先通过抑制和下调hTERT表达(端粒酶活性)而最终引发瘤细胞衰亡的途径来实现的。

Objective To study the inhibitory effect of antisense human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) on leukemia cell proliferation in vitro. Methods Sense and antisense hTERT eukaryotic expression vectors previously constructed were transfected into leukemia cell line HL60 using SuperFect transfection reagent (Qiagen) to obtain HL60-s and HL60-as, and the G418-resistant colonies were identified for the presence of hTERT insert by PCR with T7 and pcDNA3.1/BGH reverse primers. Endogenous hTERT mRNA expression and telomerase activity were then detected by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and telomerase associated protein -silver staining in each cell line. MTT cellular proliferation assay, soft agar colony formation assay and flow cytometry were also employed to analyze the changes in proliferation capacity of leukemia cell in vitro and apoptosis of the tumor cells induced by antisense hTERT. Results Antisense hTERT remarkably reduced endogenous hTERT mRNA expression (P<0.01) and down-regulated telomerase activity in HL60, as compared with the blank control and sense hTERT. After 25 passages of the 3 cell lines, a 7-day cell growth curve and the numbers (size) of soft agar colony formation showed that the proliferation rates and the anchorage-independent growth ability of HL60-as cells were significantly decreased in comparison with HL60 and HL60-s cells, but a significant increase in apoptosis of HL60-as cells occurred as determined by flow cytometry. Conclusions Antisense hTERT can obviously inhibit leukemia cell growth and proliferation in vitro, and this telomerase-targeted molecular biotherapy may be achieved by apoptosis pathway through down-regulation of hTERT mRNA and telomerase activity.