RESUMO
OBJECTIVE@#This study is designed to investigate the mode of action of the synergistic effect of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and magnolol against cervical cancer.@*METHODS@#Network pharmacological approach was applied to predict the molecular mechanism of 5-FU combined with magnolol against cervical cancer. CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, immunofluorescence staining, adhesion assay, wound healing mobility assay, cell migration and invasion assay and Western blot analysis were conducted to validate the results of in silico study.@*RESULTS@#Phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway was identified as the key pathway in silico study. The experimental results showed that 5-FU combined with magnolol strongly inhibited cervical cancer cell proliferation, induced the morphological change of HeLa cells by down-regulating the expression of α-actinin, tensin-2 and vinculin. Moreover, magnolol enhanced inhibitory effect of 5-FU on the cell adhesion, migration and invasion. The phosphorylation of AKT and PI3K and the expression of mTOR were strongly inhibited by the combination of 5-FU and magnolol. Moreover, the expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin was upregulated and the expression of Snail, Slug and vimentin was down-regulated by the 5-FU together with magnolol.@*CONCLUSION@#Taken together, this study suggests that 5-FU combined with magnolol exerts a synergistic anti-cervical cancer effect by regulating the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathways.
RESUMO
This study was aimed to investigate the effect of Nan-She-Teng (Celastrus orbiculatus) extract on epithe-lial-mesenchymal transition(EMT) in HepG2 cells. Except the control group, human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells in other groups were treated with Celastrus Orbiculatus extract in different concentrations (10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 μg·mL-1). The protein expression levels related to EMT were detected by western blotting. At 48 h after fertiliza-tion, the zebrafish embryos were randomly assigned to 7 groups as follows: untreated control group (E3 buffer), DMSO group (E3 buffer with 1% DMSO), and different dosages treatment of C.orbiculatus extract (10, 20, 40, 80, and 160μg·mL-1) for 24 h. The protein expressions of mTOR signaling pathways were detected by western blotting. The re-sults showed that compared with the control group, C.orbiculatus extract significantly increased E-cadherin protein expression. Simultaneously, C.orbiculatus extract inhibited vimentin and mTOR signaling pathways at protein levels. It was concluded that to a certain extent, C.orbiculatus extract prevented EMT in HepG2 cells by modulating the mTOR signaling pathway. Therefore, it suggested that mTOR can be chosen as a new therapeutic target for clinical treatment of hepatic carcinoma.
RESUMO
This study was aimed to investigate whether the extracts of Celastrus orbiculatus enhanced the invasion function of maspin tumor inhibitor gene through the construction of maspin overexpression human gastric carcinoma MGC803 cell line. Maspin was cloned into plasmid GV208-EGFP eukaryotic expression vector. And then, the recombinant plasmid GV208-maspin-EGFP was transfected into human gastric carcinoma MGC803 cells. After the maspin overexpression MGC803 cell were treated with Celastrus orbiculatus extracts in different concentrations (10, 20, 40 μg·mL-1), the invasion effects were detected by Transwell chamber assay. The results showed that after the successful construction of maspin overexpression cell line, the number of cells invading through Matrigel was obviously decreased in the Transwell chamber assay. It also showed drug concentration dependency. It was concluded that maspin gene can inhibit invasion of gastric carcinoma MGC803 cells. Simultaneously, the extracts of Celastrus orbiculatus can enhance the function of maspin gene.