Smo gene silencing: a promising strategy for natural killer/t-cell lymphoma treatment via modulating proliferation and apoptosis

Natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is a malignancy with a poor prognosis. The Smoothened (Smo) protein is implicated in NKTCL growth. This study employed lentiviral vector-mediated Smo RNA interference (LV-Smo-RNAi) to silence the Smo gene in the human NKTCL cell line SNT8. Fluorescence microscopy, qRT-PCR, and Western blot verified the reduction of Smo mRNA and protein levels. The CCK-8 assay showed that Smo silencing inhibited cell proliferation. Flow cytometry with annexin V-PE/7-AAD double staining indicated an increased apoptosis rate. Moreover, the expression of GLI family zinc finger 1 (Gli1) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) was downregulated. In vivo, xenotransplantation experiments demonstrated that Smo silencing led to slower tumor growth with reduced tumor volume and weight. Overall, Smo gene silencing holds great potential as a novel molecular-targeted therapy approach for NKTCL by effectively suppressing cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis.