Down-regulation of survivin expression reversed multidrug resistance in adriamycin-resistant HL-60/ADR cell line

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the ability of an antisense RNA eukaryotic expression plasmid pcDNA3.1/survivin in down-regulating the expression level of survivin mRNA and survivin protein and reversed multidrug resistance (MDR) in adriamycin-resistant HL-60/ADR cell line.

Methods: The expression of survivin mRNA was measured by RT-PCR and the expression of survivin protein was measured by Western blot. Caspase-3 activity was determined by Phar Mingen colorimetric assay kit. Apoptosis was assessed by flow cytometry. The chemosensitivity of HL-60/ADR cells to adriamycin (ADR) was measured by MTT assay.

Results: pcDNA3.1/survivin down-regulated the expression level of survivin mRNA and survivin protein obviously, and induced apoptosis of HL-60/ADR cells in a time-dependent manner during 12-48 h. After transient transfection with pcDNA3.1/survivin for 48 h, survivin mRNA decreased by 67 %, survivin protein decreased by 57 %, caspase-3 activity increased 4.37 times, and the apoptosis rate increased by 4.41 % compared with control. Compared with ADR alone, pcDNA3.1/survivin significantly reversed MDR in HL-60/ADR cells, the chemosensitivity of HL-60/ADR cells to ADR was increased to 5.36 folds.

Conclusion: pcDNA3.1/survivin down-regulated the expression level of survivin mRNA and survivin protein obviously, the threshold of apoptosis was decreased and MDR was reversed.