Silencing the activity and proliferative properties of the human EagI Potassium Channel by RNA Interference.
EagI potassium channels are natively expressed in the mammalian brain as well as in many cancer cell lines and tumor tissues. The role of EagI in malignant transformation has been suggested by several experiments, but the lack of specific EagI inhibitors has made it difficult to examine the influence of the channel on oncogenesis and its potential as a therapeutic target. We have used short interfering RNA to test the effects of EagI reduction on the behavior of tumor cells in vitro. By generating and optimizing an EagI-specific short interfering RNA system, we were able to study the effects of EagI depletion on several cancer cell lines that endogenously express this protein. We show here that our short interfering RNA sequences act specifically on EagI, reproducibly induce a significant decrease in the proliferation of tumor cell lines, and do not trigger any observable nonspecific responses.
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Claudia
C
Weber
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Fernanda Mello
FM
de Queiroz
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Bryan R
BR
Downie
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Arnt
A
Suckow
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany.
Walter
W
Stühmer
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany. Electronic address: Pardo@em.mpg.de.
Luis A
LA
Pardo
D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D051638:Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D034622:RNA Interference; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors
D051638:Ether-A-Go-Go Potassium Channels; D012333:RNA, Messenger