Effects of lentivirus-mediated CYP17A1 gene silencing on the biological activity of glioma.

Highlights • CYP17A1 was significantly higher in the glioma tissues than the normal brain tissues. • The expression of CYP17A1 gene was positively correlative with glioma pathological grades. • CYP17A1 gene silence inhibited the proliferation and invasion of glioma cells and promoted the apoptosis in glioma cells. • We firstly poses a hypothesis to explain why incidence of glioma is lower in females than in males. Abstract Gliomas are the most common malignant primary brain tumors with poor prognosis. We attempted to explore the role of CYP17A1 in glioma progression. We demonstrated that the expression of CYP17A1 was significantly higher in the glioma tissues than the normal brain tissues, especially in malignant glioma. Moreover, the expression of CYP17A1 gene was positively correlative with glioma pathological grades. In vitro, CYP17A1 gene silence inhibited the proliferation and invasion of glioma cells and promoted the apoptosis in glioma cells. Also, the subcutaneously transplanted tumour in BALB/C–nu showed that CYP17A1 gene silence inhibited glioma growth. These results reveal that CYP17A1 plays a major role in the progress of glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]