ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To investigate the inhibitory effect of berberine （BER） on the invasion and migration of human renal carcinoma cells and its potential mechanism. METHODS Using human renal carcinoma OSRC-2 cell as object， alamarBlue assay was adopted to detect the inhibitory effects of 0 （control group）， 25， 50， 75， 100， 125， 150， 175 and 200 μmol/L BER on the proliferation of OSRC-2 cell after treatment for 24 h and 48 h. After treated with 0（control group）， 50， 100 μmol/L BER for 48 h， the effect of BER on cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. The migration of OSRC-2 cells in 24 h and 36 h was observed by cell scratch test， and the invasion ability of OSRC-2 cells in 24 h was detected by Transwell assay. The protein expression of methyltransferase-like 3 （METTL3） was detected by Western blot after treatment for 48 h， and RNA methylation quantification kit was used to detect the levels of N6-methyladenosine （m6A） in OSRC-2 cells. RESULTS Compared with control group， BER at different concentrations could significantly decrease the survival rate of OSRC-2 cells （P＜0.01）， and showed a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. After 48 h of BER treatment at 50， 100 μmol/L， the cell was arrested in G0/G1 phase （P＜0.01）. Compared with control group， the migration and invasion abilities of cells in 50， 100 μmol/L BER group were significantly decreased （P＜0.05 or P＜0.01）； the protein expression of METTL3 and the level of m6A in RNA were significantly decreased （P＜0.01）. CONCLUSIONS BER can inhibit level of m6A by down-regulating the expression of METTL3， thereby inhibiting the invasion and metastasis of human renal carcinoma cells.