Lentivirus-mediated silencing of USO1 inhibits cell proliferation and migration of human colon cancer cells.

Belonging to the tether factors family, USO1 (vesicle transport factor) plays a critical role in endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi trafficking and vesicular transport which is important to tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism of USO1 in colon cancer was still unknown. In our research, the expression of USO1 was knockdown in colon cancer cells (HCT116 and HT-29) by using a special lentivirus shRNA approach. A series of experiments were carried out to evaluate the effect of deregulation of USO1, including cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration and cell cycle. Knockdown of USO1 inhibits the ability of cell proliferation and migration. Furthermore, the deregulation of USO1 induces early apoptosis and decreased cells in G2-M phase. We demonstrate for the first time that USO1 gene has a critical role in human colon cancer. Our finding represents that USO1 gene may be a promising target for therapy and diagnosis in treatment of human colon cancer.