Suppression of STN1 enhances the cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents in cancer cells by elevating DNA damage

DNA damage-inducing agents are among the most effective treatment regimens in clinical chemotherapy. However, drug resistance and severe side effects caused by these agents greatly limit their efficacy. Sensitizing malignant cells to chemotherapeutic agents has long been a goal of chemotherapy. In the present study, suppression of STN1, a gene important for safeguarding genome stability, potentiated the anticancer effect of chemotherapeutic agents in tumor cells. Using multiple cancer cells from a variety of origins, it was observed that downregulation of STN1 resulted in a significant decrease in the half maximal inhibitory concentration values of several conventional anticancer agents. When cells are treated with anticancer agents, STN1 suppression leads to a decline in colony formation and diminished anchorage-independent growth. Furthermore, it was additionally observed that STN1 knockdown augmented the levels of DNA damage caused by damage-inducing agents. The present study concluded that suppression of STN1 enhances the cytotoxicity of damage-inducing chemotherapeutic agents by increasing DNA damage in cancer cells.