Local injection of lentivirus-delivered livinshRNA suppresses lung adenocarcinoma growth by inducing a G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest.

The inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) plays an important role in tumorigenesis and may be a potential target for cancer therapy. Livin, which belongs to this family, is highly expressed in various tumors. The previous study demonstrated that silencing Livin gene promoted lung cancer cell apoptosis; however, the effects on tumor growth suppression by targeting this gene in vivo, to thereby determine the efficacy of targeting Livin for patient therapy, have not been determined. This study injected lentivirus-delivered livinshRNA into established xenograft tumors derived from the lung adenocarcinoma cell line SPC-A-1 in BALB/C nude mice, the result showed that LivinshRNA down-regulated Livin expression effectively, induced tumor cell apoptosis, reduced tumor cell proliferation, and suppressed tumor growth dramatically, with a tumor volume inhibitory rate of (58.65±4.82)% and a tumor weight inhibitory rate of (47.44±1.64)%, but with less severe adverse reaction to the mouse. This study further demonstrated that Livin gene silencing induced a G0/G1-phase cell cycle arrest and cyclin D1 downregulation, which is a key regulator of the G0/G1- to S-phase transition. These findings suggest that LivinshRNA local injection may serve as a therapeutic method for patient treatment, and that LivinshRNA may suppress tumor growth by arresting the cell cycle in the G0/G1-phase.