Figure 3.

Simvastatin inhibits tumor expression of lncRNA SNHG29, which promotes PD-L1 expression

(A) lncRNA-sequencing analysis of simvastatin-treated and negative control cells is presented in a heatmap analysis. (B) Flow chart of screening-altered lncRNAs in indicated samples. (C) Schematic annotation of lncRNA SNHG29 genomic locus on chromosome 17 (p11.2) in humans. Green rectangles represent exons. (D) qRT-PCR analysis of differentially expressed lncRNA SNHG29 and PD-L1. (E) Western blotting tested PD-L1 level in lncRNA SNHG29-overexpressed or -knockdown CRC cells. (F) Representative ISH staining for SNHG29 and IHC staining for PD-L1, CD8, and Ki67 expression in the xenograft tumor tissues from CRC patients, treated with simvastatin or negative control (50 mg/kg) five times weekly for 3 weeks. The relative intensities of ISH and IHC staining were quantified by ImageJ software (n = 6). The density of immune cell infiltrates in the tumor was calculated as the number of positive cells per field of tissue. The results are presented as mean ± SD. ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001.