shRNA-targeted Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibits proliferation, reduces invasion and enhances chemosensitivity in laryngeal carcinoma cells

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), one isoform of cyclooxygenase proinflammatary enzymes, is a causal factor for tumor development, invasion, metastasis, and chemoresistance. It is frequently overexpressed in a variety of human malignancies, including laryngeal carcinoma. To investigate its possibility as a therapeutic target for the treatment of laryngeal carcinoma, we employed RNA interference technology to downregulate endogenous gene COX-2 expression in laryngeal carcinoma cells and analyzed its phenotypical changes. Results showed that shRNA-mediated downregulation of COX-2 expression in human laryngeal carcinoma cells significantly inhibited cell proliferation and colony formation in vitro and reduced the potential of tumorigenicity in vivo. The specific downregulation led to cell arrest in the G0/G1 phase of cell cycle and final apoptosis induction. The increased apoptosis was associated with the ratios of Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL/Bax. In the present study, we also observed that the downregulation of COX-2 could obviously enhanced the cytotoxic effect of Taxanes both in vitro and in vivo. All these results suggest that knockdown of COX-2 expression can lead to potent antitumor activity and chemosensitizing activity to taxanes in human laryngeal carcinomas.