Up/down-regulation of miR-21 changes biological function of colon can-cer cells and sensitivity to cetuximab

AIM: To explore the effects of miR-21 on biological behavior of colon cancer cells and their sensitivity to epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody cetuximab. METHODS: Lentiviral vectors were constructed to generate up- and down-regulations of miR-21 lentiviruses (LV-miR-21 and LV-anti-miR-21, respectively), and the corresponding negative control viruses (LV-miR-21 NC and LV-anti-miR-21 NC, respectively) were also constructed. The viruses were used to infect human colon cancer RKO cells. The changes of the miR-21 expression level, the cell proliferation, the colony-forming ability, the cell apoptosis and the sensitivity of the cells to cetuximab were detected by real-time PCR, MTT assay, soft agar colony assay, flow cytometry and CCK-8 assay. RESULTS: The lentivirus titers of LV-miR-21, LV-miR-2 NC, LV-anti-miR-21 and LV-anti-miR-21 NC were 3.0×1012 TU/L, 6.0×1011 TU/L, 2.0×1012 TU/L and 8.0×1011 TU/L, respectively. The infection efficiency was over 80% by the observation of green fluorescence. The miR-21 expression level, the cell proliferation, and the colony-forming ability in LV-miR-21 group were significantly higher than those in LV-anti-miR-21 group. The early apoptotic rate and the inhibitory rate of cetuximab for the cells in LV-anti-miR-21 group were higher than those in LV-miR-21 group. CONCLUSION: miR-21 promotes the proliferation of colon cancer cells. Down-regulation of miR-21 enhances the sensitivity of the colon cancer cells to the targeted therapy drug cetuximab.