Knockdown of PSF1 expression inhibits cell proliferation in lung cancer cells in vitro

Partner of sld five 1 (PSF1) is a member of the heterotetrameric complex termed GINS. Previous studies have shown that PSF1 is unregulated in several cancer and associated with tumor malignant characters. However, the effects of PSF1 in lung cancer are still unclear. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of PSF1 on the proliferation capacities of lung cancer. To start with, expression of PSF1 in 22 human lung cancer samples and adjacent non-tumor samples were detected by real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting. Our results showed that PSF1 was overexpressed in lung cancer samples compared to adjacent non-tumor samples. To achieve better insights of PSF1 functions in lung cancer cells, we used PSF1-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA) successfully inhibit the expression of PSF1 in messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels. In addition, we used lung cancer cell lines with different p53 gene background (p53 null and p53 wild-type). The results showed that knockdown of PSF1 inhibited cell proliferation and caused cell cycle arrest of lung cancer cells in a p53-independent manner. Our data indicated that PSF1 is functionally involved in lung cancer cell proliferation and is a potential target for lung cancer therapy.