Influence of survivin-targeted siRNA on the biological features of colorectal carcinoma cells.

The transient transfection of survivin-targeted siRNA to Lovo cells and its influence on the biological features were studied. Two pairs of 19 base pairs (bp) siRNA-specific targeted survivin gene were designed and synthesized by in vitro transcription (Survivin-1, Survivin-2). After transient transfection of the two survivin-targeted siRNAs to Lovo cells by Lipofectamine™ 2000, the expression of survivin mRNA was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry and cell proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay. We found that the expression levels of survivin mRNA of the two RNAi groups (Survivin-1 group and Survivin-2 group) respectively decreased by 70% and 39.1% compared with the control Lovo's. Seventy-two hours after transfection, apoptosis rates of the two RNAi groups were 21.51% and 26.28%, both of which were higher than control Lovo's (9.03%). The results at 72 h after transfection were that the optical density (OD) at 490 nm of the two RNAi groups was 0.581 ± 0.070 and 0.681 ± 0.104, both of which were much lower than the control Lovo's (2.060 ± 0.272). Based on the results, we can draw a conclusion that the two survivin-targeted siRNAs successfully suppressed the expression of survivin mRNA, inhibited cell growth and induce cell apoptosis. It provides a powerful evidence for colorectal carcinoma gene therapy.