Pituitary tumor transforming gene: a novel therapeutic target for glioma treatment

Glioma which has strong proliferation and angiogenesis ability is the most common and malignant primary tumor in central nervous system. Pituitary tumor transforming gene (PTTG) is found in pituitary tumor, and plays important role in cell proliferation, cell cycle, cell apoptosis, and angiogenesis. However, the role of PTTG in glioma is still incompletely investigated. Here, we explored the correlation between PTTG and glioma grade, as well as micro-vessel density (MVD). In addition, siRNA was used to silence PTTG expression in glioma cell lines including U87MG, U251, and SHG44. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and angiogenesis were studied both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated that PTTG expression was significantly up-regulated in glioma, and had positive correlation with glioma grade and MVD. Silencing of PTTG inhibited glioma cell proliferation, migration/invasion, and angiogenesis, induced cell apoptosis, suppressed cell invasion, and arrested cell cycle at G0/G1 stage. Silencing of PTTG could also inhibit tumor growth, invasion, and angiogenesis in vivo. Our data indicated that PTTG might be a potential target for glioma treatment.