The anti-neoplastic activities of aloperine in HeLa cervical cancer cells are associated with inhibition of the IL-6-JAK1-STAT3 feedback loop / 中国天然药物

Cervical cancer (CC) is recognized as the most common neoplasm in the female reproductive system worldwide. The lack of chemotherapeutic agents with outstanding effectiveness and safety severely compromises the anti-cipated prognosis of patients. Aloperine (ALO) is a natural quinolizidine alkaloid with marked anti-cancer effects on multiple malignancies as well as favorable activity in relieving inflammation, allergies and infection. However, its therapeutic efficacy and underlying mechanism in CC are still unclear. In the current study, MTT assay was employed to evaluate the viability of HeLa cells exposed to ALO to preliminarily estimate the effectiveness of ALO in CC. Then, the effects of ALO on the proliferation and apoptosis of HeLa cells were further investigated by plate colony formation and flow cytometry, respectively, while the migration and invasion of ALO-treated HeLa cells were evaluated using Transwell assay. Moreover, nude mice were subcutaneously inoculated with HeLa cells to demonstrate the anti-CC properties of ALO in vivo. The molecular mechanisms underlying these effects of ALO were evaluated by Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis. This study experimentally demonstrated that ALO inhibited the proliferation of HeLa cells via G2 phase cell cycle arrest. Simultaneously, ALO promoted an increase in the percentage of apoptotic HeLa cells by increasing the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Additionally, the migration and invasion of HeLa cells were attenuated by ALO treatment, which was considered to result from inhibition of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. For molecular mechanisms, the expression and activation of the IL-6-JAK1-STAT3 feedback loop were markedly suppressed by ALO treatment. This study indicated that ALO markedly suppresses the proliferation, migration and invasion and enhances the apoptosis of HeLa cells. In addition, these prominent anti-CC properties of ALO are associated with repression of the IL-6-JAK1-STAT3 feedback loop.

Effects of chloride channels on hemolysis induced by puerarin injection / 中国应用生理学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the effects of blocking and activating chloride channels on hemolysis induced by puerarin injection in rabbits and to investigate the roles of chloride channels in hemolytic reaction induced by puerarin injection.@*METHODS@#Rabbit erythrocyte suspension was incubated with different concentrations of puerarin injection(0.75, 1.5, 3, 6, 12 mg/ml) at 37C for 6 hours. The cell imaging system was employed to observe whether puerarin injection induced hemolysis. The hemolysis rate was detected by microplate reader and flow cytometry. Effects of activating and closing chloride channels on the hemolysis induced by puerarin injection were explored.@*RESULTS@#Puerarin injection could induce the hemolysis of rabbit erythrocytes . In the range of 1.5 mg/ml~12 mg/ml, puerarin injection could induce hemolysis in a concentration-dependent manner (=3, <0.01). The chloride channel blockers tamoxifen (20 μmol/L) and ATP (10 mmol/L) significantly inhibited the hemolysis induced by puerarin injection (=3~5, <0.01). Application of low concentration ATP (50 μmol/L) to activate the chloride channel significantly increased puerarin injection induced hemolysis (=4, <0.01).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The hemolytic effect of puerarin injection is dose-dependent , and the activation of chloride channel is closely related to the hemolysis induced by puerarin injection.