Forsythiae Fructus inhibits melanoma growth through activating MAPKs/Nrf2/HO-1 signaling and modulating glycerophospholipid metabolism / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE Forsythiae Fructus (Lianqiao) is a typical heat-clearing and detoxicating traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herb, which has been traditionally used for treating cancer according to TCM theory. However, the under?lying mechanism has not been fully explained. METHODS In this study, we investigated the antitumor effect of Forsyth?iae Fructus aqueous extract (FAE) on B16-F10 melanoma. RESULTS FAE strongly inhibited the tumor growth and metastasis formation in B16-F10 melanoma transplanted mice. The survival time of tumor-bearing mice was also signifi?cantly prolonged by FAE. The levels of ROS, MDA, TNF-α and IL-6 decreased, while GSH increased in the FAE treat?ment group, indicating FAE possesses strong anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory activity. Western blotting analysis demonstrated that antioxidant proteins Nrf2 and HO-1, tumor suppressors P53 and p-PTEN, and the MAPK pathways in tumor tissues were upregulated by FAE treatment. Serum metabolomics analysis further uncovered that 17 metabolites mostly involving in glycerophospholipid metabolism were correlated with the antitumor effect of FAE. Notably, several lysophosphatidylcholines (LysoPCs) significantly decreased in tumor model group, while FAE treatment restored the changes of these phospholipids to about normal condition. LysoPC acyltransferase 1 (LPCAT1) and autotaxin (ATX) highly expressed in melanoma and markedly downregulated by FAE were believed to be responsible for this modulation. CONCLUSION FAE exhibites strong antitumor activity against B16-F10 melanoma through activating MAPKs/Nrf2/HO-1 mediated anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation and modulating glycerophospholipid metabolism via downregulating LPCAT1 and ATX. Besides, it is suggested that serum LysoPCs could be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prog?nosis of melanoma.