Small interfering RNA-directed knockdown of uracil DNA glycosylase induces apoptosis and sensitizes human prostate cancer cells to genotoxic stress.

Uracil DNA glycosylase (UNG) is the primary enzyme responsible for removing uracil residues from DNA. Although a substantial body of evidence suggests that DNA damage plays a role in cancer cell apoptosis, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. In particular, very little is known about the role of base excision repair of misincorporated uracil in cell survival. To test the hypothesis that the repair of DNA damage associated with uracil misincorporation is critical for cancer cell survival, we used small interfering RNA (siRNA) to target the human UNG gene. In a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner, siRNA specifically inhibited UNG expression and modified the expression of several genes at both mRNA and protein levels. In LNCaP cells, p53, p21, and Bax protein levels increased, whereas Bcl2 levels decreased. In DU145 cells, p21 levels were elevated, although mutant p53 and Bax levels remained unchanged. In PC3 cells, UNG inhibition resulted in elevated p21 and Bax levels. In all three cell lines, UNG inhibition reduced cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and increased cellular sensitivity to genotoxic stress. Furthermore, an in vitro cleavage experiment using uracil-containing double-stranded DNA as a template has shown that siRNA-mediated knockdown of UNG expression significantly reduced the uracil-excising activity of UNG in human prostate cancer cells, which was associated with DNA damage analyzed by comet assay. Taken together, these findings indicate that RNA interference-directed targeting of UNG is a convenient, novel tool for studying the biological role of UNG and raises the potential of its application for prostate cancer therapy.