The investigation of the effect of pink1-AS lncrna in HCT116 colon cancer cell line

Cancer is the most frequent disease in the world ranking after heart and vascular disease. Colon cancer is the third most seen among all cancers. Although colon cancer is seen in all age groups, more than 90% of patients are forty years old and over. Most of chemotherapeutic drugs aim to inhibit the progression of cancer and to irradicate the tumor. Chemotherapeutic agents kill cancer cells, while at the same time causing damage to normal cells. As a new approach for the treatment of cancer, new perspect is gaining importance that targets the expression level of molecules responsible for cancer. Environmental factors as well as non coding RNAs are responsible for the cause of colon cancer. In colon cancer, gene expression level of PINK1 is found to be highest and is responsible for cancer progression. PINK1-AS is an antisense long non coding RNA opposite to PINK1 and is responsible for its gene regulation. We are of the opinion that miRNAs targeting PINK1-AS regulates the gene expression of PINK1 in colon cancers triggering the apoptosis. Therefore, colon cancer cell line (HCT116) was transfected using anti miRNAs targeting PINK1-AS in cell culture. cDNA was converted from the total RNA isolated from this cell line. Gene expression levels of PINK1-AS, PINK1 and PTEN was seen using real time PCR. Apoptosis level of the transfected cell line was seen using flow cytometry. The expression data obtained from the gene expression levels of PINK1-AS, PINK1 and PTEN was not significant as compared to negative control miRNA. The apoptosis level was also not significant when analysed. As a result, in order to silence PINK1, other molecules targeting PINK1-AS gene should be found out for the treatment of colon cancer.