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Publication Date

Fall 12-10-2025

Keywords

Ewing Sarcoma, Pediatric Cancer, TWIST1, Adhesion Receptor, Extracellular Matrix, CRISPR, Apoptosis, Proliferation, Migration, qRTPCR, Incucyte, Tissue Culture

Description

TWIST1 is a transcription factor that plays a critical role in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process that promotes cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis. This study investigates the functional role of TWIST1 in cancer progression by using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockdown to examine its effects on apoptosis, proliferation, migration, and invasion. TWIST1 was knocked down in cancer cell lines using CRISPR/Cas9 assay. Knockdown efficiency and changes in genes were confirmed by qRT-PCR. Functional assays included caspase assays for apoptosis, MTT assays for proliferation, wound-healing assays for migration, Matrigel invasion assays, and colony formation assays to assess long-term growth and invasive potential. Across assays, TWIST1 knockdown significantly increased apoptosis, reduced proliferation, and showed limited impact on migration, while colony formation results were difficult to interpret due to widespread cell death. qRT-PCR confirmed strong TWIST1 suppression, validating the effectiveness of the knockdowns. Together, these findings indicate that loss of TWIST1 compromises cancer cell survival and proliferation, supporting its role as a key driver of tumor progression and highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target.

Collection

Mechanisms of Disease Lab Reports

Format

pdf

Size or Duration

1

City

San Antonio

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Investigating the Role of TWIST1 in Cancer Progression Using CRISPR Knockdown

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