Study on apoptosis mechanism of leukemia cells induced by bisindolylmaleimide derivative L6 / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the effect of bisindolylmaleimide derivative L6 on inducing apoptosis of leukemia cells and its molecular mechanism. Methods: MTT assay was used to determinate the killing effect of L6 on HELL, K562, and KG1a cells. Flow cytometry was used to detect the effects of L6 on apoptosis, cell cycle, and differentiation of HEL cells. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of apoptosis-related protein. Finally, the effect of L6 on leukemia mouse was studied in vivo. Results: MTT assay showed that L6 had a stronger inhibitory activity against HEL, K562, and KG1a cell lines than the positive control PKC412 compound, with IC50 of (0.05 ± 0.03), (0.32 ± 0.01), and (0.19 ± 0.10) μmol/L, respectively. L6 could induce the apoptosis, G2/M arrest, megakaryocyte differentiation of HEL cells with a dose effect. Western blotting revealed that L6 mainly performed apoptosis by activating Caspase-3, which is an apoptotic executive protein. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining of liver tissue of mice showed a reduction in HEL cell infiltration, but the more significant reduction in group L6 was observed, indicating that L6 could delay the metastasis of leukemia, and its effect was better than that of PKC412. Conclusion: Bisindolylmaleimide derivative L6 has a strong anti-leukemia activity, providing new hope for the development of new leukemia drugs.