KNTC1 knockdown suppresses cell proliferation of colon cancer.

Kinetochore-associated protein 1 (KNTC1) is a kind of kinetochore components that ensure the proper functioning of the spindle-assembly checkpoint. To date, the functional information of KNTC1 in colon cancer remains unknown. This study was aimed to investigate the role of KNTC1 in colon cancer. We found KNTC1 was significantly upregulated in the colon cancer compared to the normal tissues. ROC curve showed the area under the curve value of KNTC1 for the prediction of colon cancer was 0.93. Kaplan-Meier revealed highly expressed KNTC1 was associated with poor prognosis. KNTC1 was widely expressed in different colon cancer cell lines. Compared with the control lentiviral infected cells, KNTC1-shRNA cells exhibited significant reduction in cell growth rates and increase in the proportion of cells in the S phase, while decrease in the G1 and G2/M phase. Furthermore, knockdown of KNTC1 dramatically increased apoptosis in the colon cancer cells. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) in gene ontology (GO) showed that KNTC1 is closely associated with cell mitosis-related components, such as nuclear chromatin, centrosome, and spindle. Moreover, upregulated KNTC1 is significantly enriched in the biological process of DNA repair, mRNA processing, microtubule cytoskeleton organization and the molecular function of helicase activity, protein heterodimerization activity and catalytic activity acting on DNA in molecular function. Our data reveal the important roles of KNTC1 in driving tumor progression in colon cancers.