Suppression of SCIN inhibits human prostate cancer cell proliferation and induces G0/G1 phase arrest.

SCIN is a calcium regulated actin severing and capping protein. Its homologue in zebrafish is found to be related with cell death. In the present study, we found that SCIN is highly expressed in human prostate cancer specimens. However, the functions of SCIN in human prostate carcinoma cells are largely unknown. To address the function of SCIN in prostate carcinoma cells, we used lentivirus-mediated RNAi to knock down SCIN expression in PC3 cells, a prostate carcinoma cell line. We found that in vitro silencing of SCIN could inhibit the proliferation and colony formation ability of PC3 cells. Furthermore, cell cycle analysis showed that reduced SCIN expression lead to G0/G1 cell cycle arrest through the regulation of cell cycle-related genes, such as p21Waf1/Cip1, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A, p16Ink4A) and cyclin A2. These results suggest that SCIN plays an important role in the proliferation of prostate cancer cells and lentivirus-mediated inhibition of SCIN expression may be a potential therapeutic method for the treatment of prostate cancer.