lncRNA SNHG1 suppresses gastric cancer cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis via Notch1 pathway.

To explore the influence of long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) small nucleolar RNA host gene 1 (SNHG1) on the proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. SNHG1 was knocked down using small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in gastric cancer cell line MGC-803 and then the changes in the expression levels of SNHG1 and Notch1 in each group of cells were evaluated via quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). After intervention of SNHG1 by siRNAs, compared with NC-siRNA group, SNHG1-siRNA group exhibited notably lowered RNA and messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of SNHG1 and Notch1 (p<0.05), a substantially lowered proliferation rate (p<0.05), a remarkably raised apoptosis rate (p<0.05) and markedly decreased protein expression levels of Notch1 and Bax (p<0.05). Additionally, the cells treated with Notch1 inhibitor had the proliferation substantially inhibited (p<0.05), while there was no notable change in the RNA expression of SNHG1 in the cells. LncRNA SNHG1 can depend on the Notch1 pathway to suppress the proliferation of gastric cancer cells and promote their apoptosis.