Propofol inhibits proliferation and migration of glioma cells by up-regulating lncRNA GAS5

Propofol has been documented to exhibit anti-tumor effects in cancers. However, the underlying mechanisms of its inhibition remain unclear. We conducted this study to investigate the effect of propofol on lncRNA GAS5 in glioma cells, and to probe the role of GAS5 in the anti-tumor effects of propofol. Human glioma cell line U251 were treated with propofol. Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, cell cycle and apoptosis were evaluated, and the expression of GAS5 was measured. After that, we knockdown the expression of GAS5 in U251 cells by using siRNA and treated them with propofol, detected above indicators again and measured the expression of GAS5related proteins. We found that propofol significantly reduced U251 cells proliferation, migration and invasion, induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis while promoted GAS5 expression. These affects could be attenuated when GAS5 was down-regulated. Moreover, propofol increases the expression of P21, decreases the expression of c-Myc and GSTM3 through elevating GAS5 expression. In total, the anti-tumor activity of propofol on glioma cells was verified in this study. One possible mechanism involved was preliminary revealed: propofol upregulates the expression of GAS5, thus stimulating P21 pathway, blocking c-Myc and GSTM3 pathways.