Research articleDown-regulation of C-terminal binding protein 2 (CtBP2) inhibits proliferation, migration, and invasion of human SHSY5Y cells in vitro

•Down-regulation of CtBP2 inhibited the cells growth, proliferation, migration and invasion abilities of human neuroblastoma cell line SHSY5Y in vitro.•The cells cycle of SHSY5Y was arrested at G2/M-phase after treatment of CtBP2 RNAi lentivirus.•CtBP2 RNAi decreased the proteins expression of c-myc, MMP2 and MMP9.

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in children and is responsible for ∼15% of pediatric cancer deaths. CtBP2 is a member of the CtBP family of proteins that functions as a transcription regulator and has been demonstrated to interact with the C-terminus of the adenoviral E1A oncoprotein. In this study, the expression of CtBP2 in the human neuroblastoma cell line SHSY5Y was down-regulated using lentiviral-mediated RNA interference. Down-regulation of CtBP2 inhibited the expression of c-myc, MMP2, and MMP9 proteins. Moreover, low expression of CtBP2 resulted in inhibited cell growth, proliferation, migration, and invasion, and the cell cycle was arrested at G2/M-phase. These results indicate that CtBP2 may be a potential target to suppress tumorigenesis in neuroblastoma.