EVALUATION OF MORPHOLINO ANTISENSE OLIGOS’ ROLE ON BCR-ABL GENE SILENCING IN THE K562 CELL LINE

Objective: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) develops when a hematopoietic stem cell acquires the BCR/ABL fusion gene. This causes these transformed hematopoietic cells to have a greater than normal proliferation rate. Scientists attempt to improve the CML treatment process by silencing the BCR/ABL oncogene. In this work, we used morpholino antisense oligos to silence the BCR/ABL oncogene. Materials and Methods: In this study, the K562 was used as a BCR/ABL fusion-gene positive cell line and the Jurkat cell line as a control. We explored the inhibiting capacity of morpholino antisense oligos in the the expression of the BCR/ABL oncogene and studied their p210 BCR/ABL suppression, inhibition of cell proliferation and stimulation of apoptosis in the K562 cells after 24 and 48 hours. Endo-Porter was used for delivery of morpholino antisense oligos into cell cytosols. Meanwhile, flow cytometric analysis was performed in order to determine the appropriate concentration of morpholino antisense