Mechanism of berberine reverses drug resistance of K562/A02 cells by down-regulating protein kinase C-alpha / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the effect of berberine on leukemia drug-resistant cell strain K562/A02 to Adriamycin resistance and protein kinase C-alpha (PRKCA) and explore its possible mechanism.Methods:The leukemia K562 cells of human chronic myeloid and Adriamycin resistant strain K562/A02 were cultured in vitro with 2.5-50.0 μmol/L doxorubicin to treat thoese cells and drug resistance of K562 and K562/A02 to Adriamycin was detected, the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC 50) of the drug was calculatedthe resistance of K562 and K562/A02 to doxorubicin was detectd , and, K562/A02 cells were treated with doxorubicin solution at a final concentration of 5 μmol/L, and K562/A02 cells were divided into control group, inhibitor group (50 μmol/L PRKCA inhibitor), low dose berberine group, medium dose berberine group and high dose berberine group. Cell counting (CCK-8) method was used to detect the inhibition rate of cell proliferation, the apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR assay detects PRKCA, MRP, multidrug resistance related genes (MDR1) levels, and the protein expressions of protein kinase C-α (PRKCA), multidrug resistance related protein (MRP), P-glycoprotein (P-gp) were detected by Western blotting. Results:The IC 50 concentration of K562/A02 to Adriamycin was significantly higher than K562. Compared with the control group, the inhibition rate of cell proliferation and the apoptosis rate in the inhibitor group, low-dose berberine group, medium-dose berberine group, and high-dose berberine group were significantly increased ( P<0.05), the expression of PRKCA mRNA (0.45±0.08, 0.92±0.10, 0.57±0.05, 0.35±0.04 vs. 1.00±0.12), MDR1 gene (0.73±0.08, 0.87±0.09, 0.65±0.07, 0.41±0.05 vs. 1.00±0.11) and PRKCA (0.59±0.09, 0.78±0.12, 0.61±0.11, 0.42±0.07 vs. 0.96±0.14), MRP (0.62±0.08, 0.79±0.13, 0.62±0.10, 0.41±0.06 vs. 0.98±0.14), P-gp (0.55±0.08, 0.75±0.12, 0.59±0.09, 0.35±0.06 vs. 0.92±0.15) were significantly reduced ( P<0.05), and berberine was dose-dependent ( P<0.05); Overexpression of PRKCA can inhibit the effect of berberine on reversing the drug resistance of K562/A02 cells. Conclusion:Berberine may reverse the drug resistance of K562/A02 to Adriamycin by down-regulating PRKCA.