Objective To silence the expression of α-synuclein in MN9D dopaminergic cells using vector mediated RNA interference （RNAi） and examined its effects on cell proliferation and viability. Methods We identified two 19-nucleotide stretches within the coding region of the α-synuclein gene and designed three sets of oligonucleotides to generate doublestranded （ds） oligos. The ds oligos were inserted into the pENTR^TM/Hl/TO vector and transfected into MN9D dopaminergic cells, α-Synuclein expression was detected by RT-PCR, real-time PCR, immunocytochemistry staining and Western blot. In addition, we measured cell proliferation using growth curves and cell viability by 3-（4, 5）-dimethylthiahiazo （-z-y 1）-3, 5-diphenytetrazoliumromide （M＇FF）. Results The mRNA and protein levels of α-synuclein gene were significantly down-regulated in pSH2/α-SYN-transfected cells compared with control MN9D and pSH/CON-transfected MN9D cells, while pSHI/α-SYN- transfected cells showed no significant difference. Silencing α-synuclein expression does not affect cell proliferation but may decrease cell viability. Conclusion Our results demonstrated pSH2/α-SYN is an effective small interfering RNA （siRNA） sequence and potent silencing of mouse α-synuclein expression in MN9D cells by vector-based RNAi, which provides the tools for studying the normal function of α-synuclein and examining its role in Parkinson＇s disease （PD） pathogenesis. α-Synuclein may be important for the viability of MN9D cells, and loss of α-synuclein may induce cell injury directly or indirectl
