FANCD2 knockdown with shRNA interference enhances the ionizing radiation sensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE-2 cells

Abstract

Fanconi anemia complementation group D2 (FANCD2) has been associated with the sensitivity of tumor cells to DNA crosslinking damaging agents in certain solid tumors. However, its role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is still unclear. In the present study, the role of FANCD2 in the response of NPC CNE-2 cells to radiation was investigated. A CNE-2 cell model with stable FANCD2 silencing was constructed by lentiviral transfection. Fluorescence quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to evaluate FANCD2 expression in CNE-2 cells. The biological impact of FANCD2 silencing on the response of CNE-2 cells to radiation was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The microarray technology, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry were used to analyze the proteins involved in related pathways after irradiation to investigate the underlying mechanism. Lentivirus-mediated shRNA interference stably silenced the FANCD2 gene in CNE-2 cells. In vitro, in the FANCD2-silenced group, cell proliferation was significantly inhibited, apoptosis was increased, and the cell cycle was arrested at the G2/M phase after irradiation. In vivo, FANCD2 silencing slowed tumor growth, as the volume and weight of the xenograft tumors were significantly decreased. Both in vitro and in vivo, the differentially expressed genes NUPR1, FLI1, and FGF21 were downregulated in the FANCD2-silenced group. Our results show that FANCD2 silencing affected the sensitivity of CNE-2 cells to ionizing radiation by regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution. The mechanism might be associated with changes in NUPR1, FLI1, and FGF21 protein expression due to the FANCD2 silencing. This study provides a promising target for NPC radiotherapy.