ABSTRACT
[Objective]To investigate the anti-proliferative effects of CEP on HCT116 cells and in mouse xenograft model. [Methods]The in vivo anti-cancer activity of CEP was determined with Xenogen bioluminescence imaging in a xenograft tumor model. The cel-based multiple signaling pathway reporter assays were carried out to determine the effects of CEP on these pathways. [Results] CEP inhibited growth of human cancer cells, the IC 50 was 0.8~11.5 μM. CEP induced cellcycle arrest in S and G2/M phase. CEP also inhibited xenograft tumor growth in athymic nude mice bearing HCT116 cells. The xenograft tumor size was significantly reduced upon the treatment with CEP(10 or 20 mg·kg-1 body weight) for up to 3 weeks. Pathway-spe-cific reporter assays indicated that CEP effectively suppressed the NF-κB and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways. [Conclusions] Our results suggest that the anticancer activity of CEP in colon cancer cells may be mediated through targeting NF-κB and MAPK/ERK signaling pathways.