The inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling by hexagonal selenium nanoparticles modified by SiRNA

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hexagonal selenium nanoparticles modified by SiRNA (HSNM-SiRNA) to inhibit epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling in Human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). After synthesis, HSNM-SiRNA and HSNs were separately exposed to NSCLC cell lines (A549, H1299, H520, and H1975), and incubated for 6 h at 37 °C. Next, the expression of NFKB, MYC, STAT, ELK1, and GAPDH was evaluated by western blot and real-time PCR. The percentage of apoptotic cells and cell cycle progression were measured when exposed to HSNM-SiRNA and HSNs. Both western blot and real-time PCR results showed that HSNM-SiRNA could down-regulate the expression of all EGFR signaling genes. The percentage of apoptotic cells was significantly increased in all cell lines when exposed to HSNM-SiRNA (P>0.05). HSNM-SiRNA in A549 and H1299 cells significantly increased the proportion of cells in G1/G0 phase and significantly decreased the proportion of cells in S phase.