Effect of small nuclear ribonucleoprotein-associated polypeptide N on the proliferation of medulloblastoma cells

Spliceosome mutations have been reported in various types of cancer and a number of antitumor drugs have been observed to tightly bind to spliceosome components. Small nuclear ribonucleoprotein-associated polypeptide N (SNRPN) is a small ribonuclear protein and is a key spliceosome constituent. However, the role of SNRPN in human medulloblastoma remains unknown. In the present study, the effect of SNRPN on cell growth was investigated in vitro using the Daoy human medulloblastoma cell line. Lentivirus (Lv)-mediated short hairpin (sh) RNA was used to silence SNRPN expression, which was verified by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. Cell proliferation was examined by MTT and colony formation assays. Knockdown of SNRPN markedly reduced the proliferation and colony formation ability of Daoy medulloblastoma cells. In addition, flow cytometric analysis revealed that the cell cycle distribution was altered when the Daoy cells were infected with Lv-shSNRPN. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effect of SNRPN on cell proliferation in medulloblastoma. The results indicate that SNRPN may be a potential novel target for the development of pharmacological therapeutics in human medulloblastoma.