Objective: To investigate the role of long non-coding RNA prostate cancer non-coding RNA1 (PRNCR1) in the castration resistant prostate cancer cells.
Methods: We compared the PRNCR1 mRNA expression of androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells LNCaP and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells C4-2 by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). According to PRNCR1 gene sequence, siRNA fragments (PRNCR1-siRNA) were designed and synthesized to transfect C4-2 cells, and 48 h later, the expression of PRNCR1 mRNA was detected again by qRT-PCR to confirm the silence of PRNCR1. Thereafter, we determined the expression level of androgen receptor (AR) using Western blotting, and observed the change in the proliferation, apoptosis and invasion ability of C4-2 cells by means of MTT, flow cytometry and Transwell cell invasion assay, respectively.
Results: Compared with LNCaP cells, the expression level of PRNCR1 mRNA in C4-2 cells increased significantly. After transfected with PRNCR1-siRNA to silence the PRNCR1 mRNA expression, the C4-2 cells showed the inhibited expression of AR protein, the depressed proliferation and invasion abilities and the increased apoptosis rate.
Conclusion: PRNCR1 may play an important role in the progression of castration resistant prostate cancer through mediating the expression of AR.