Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in two Types of Osteosarcoma cell lines upon Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Treatment Using the RNA-seq Technique

Abstract

Abstract Osteosarcoma (OS) predominantly occurs in adolescents, and more often in males than females with characteristics of local invasive growth and early pulmonary metastases. Owing to highly selective and effectiveness, nanoparticles (NPs) have been a new alternative for traditional chemotherapeutic drugs. Previous studies have proved that zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) is one of a promising inorganic NPs in treatment of various tumors besides OS. In this study, we use RNA-seq analysis to deeply explore the potential biological mechanism in the process of ZnO NPs-treated different types of OS cell lines. We detected that 928 genes (DEGs) differentially expressed both in 143B and MG-63 cells, and the eight highest DEGs were verified by RT-qPCR. Gene Ontology (GO) categories analysis displayed regulation of transcription factor on nucleic acid binding in molecular function term, and extracellular space in cellular components term in both OS cell lines. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) classification analysis found that the MAPK, Toll-like receptor and NF-κB pathways were co-enriched in both OS cell lines. The Protein-protein Interaction (PPI) revealed that HMOX1, MAFB, CXCL10 and CXCL11 were most involved in multiple aspects of biological events in OS cells under ZnO NPs treatment. Furthermore, the key protein molecules in differential signal pathways in both OS cell lines were detected and confirmed by Western Blot (WB). In conclusion, our findings unveiled a range of potential antitumor mechanisms and exploitable bioeffects of ZnO NPs treatment on OS.