ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the antitumor activity of the procaspase-3 activator SM-1 in BGC-823 cells in vivo and in vitro and the mechanisms.Methods The inhibitory effects of SM-1 on proliferation of BGC-823 cells were evaluated using MTT method, the cell apoptosis rate was detected by flow cytometry, and the expression of caspase-3 protein and procaspase-3 mRNA was detected by Western blotting and RT-PCR, respectively.SM-1 Antitumor activity was evaluated using the xenograft of BGC-823 cells in nude mice.Results SM-1 effectively inhibited the proliferation in vitro and in-duced apoptosis of BGC-823 cells in a dose-dependent manner.After treatment with SM-1 for 48 h, the protein expression levels of caspase-3 and mRNA expression levels of procaspase-3 were increased.SM-1 significantly inhibited growth of BGC-823 xenograft tumor at the 300 mg/kg dose and the inhibition rate was 56.3%(P<0.05).Conclusion SM-1 can significantly inhibit the tumor growth of BGC-823 cells in vivo and in vitro.The mechanism is possibly related to the activation of procaspase-3 and induced apoptosis of tumor cells.