Stable gene-silence of Kif2a synergistic with 5-fluorouracil suppresses oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma growth in vitro and in vivo.

Objective: Squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue (SCCOT) is one of the most common malignant carcinomas in the head and neck. Recurrence and/or metastasis often results in failure of treatment and decreases the survival of the patients. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of gene-silence of Kif2a on SCCOT in viro and in vivo.

Study Design: Plasmid-mediated expression of Kif2a-siRNA (pGPU6/GFP/Kif2a) was employed to silence the expression of Kif2a in Tca8113 cells at both mRNA and protein levels. Tca8113 cell proliferation was measured by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and growth of Tca8113 tumors was determined by intra-tumor injection of pGPU6/GFP/Kif2a in nude mice.

Results: Gene-silence of Kif2a suppressed Tca8113 cell proliferation. pGPU6/GFP/Kif2a synergized the tumor suppression effect of 5-Fluorouracil (5-Fu) on Tca8113 cells.

Conclusions: Our data support that Kif2a is a potential molecular target for the therapeutics of recurrent and metastatic SCCOT.