Mechanisms behind the inhibition of lung adenocarcinoma cell by shikonin.

Shikonin, a natural naphthoquinone isolated from a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, can exert inhibitory effect on tumor cell growth. However, little has been known concerning the effect of shikonin on lung adenocarcinoma cell and underlying mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated the effect of shikonin on the proliferation, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma cells. We found that shikonin significantly suppressed the proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma cells compared with control in dose- and time-dependent manner (P < 0.05). In the meantime, our results showed that shikonin markedly increased the proportion of A549 cells at stage G1 as well as induced apoptosis in A549 cells. Furthermore, suppressed CCND1 and elevated caspase3 and caspase7 expression levels at mRNA were found in this study, indicating that shikonin may inhibit the growth of lung adenocarcinoma cell by changing cell cycle and promoting cell apoptosis through the regulation of CCND1, caspase3, and caspase7. Although more studies are needed, this study suggests that shikonin has the potential to be used as an anti-cancer agent in the treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.

Shikonin attenuates lung cancer cell adhesion to extracellular matrix and metastasis by inhibiting integrin ß1 expression and the ERK1/2 signaling pathway.

Integrin ß1 facilitates cancer cell adhesion, migration and metastasis by activating intracellular signaling pathways including the ERK and PI3K signaling pathways. In previous studies, shikonin, an active naphthoquinone isolated from the Chinese medicine Zi Cao (gromwell), showed effective anticancer activity both in vivo and in vitro. However, the mechanisms underlying shikonin's anticancer activity are not fully elucidated. Increasing evidence indicates that shikonin inhibits tumor metastasis, but little is known about the effect of shikonin on lung cancer cells. To better understand the anti-metastatic role of shikonin in lung cancer, in this study we sought to investigate the effect of shikonin on lung cancer cell proliferation, adhesion to extracellular matrices (ECM), migration and invasion in non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells. We also sought to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying shikonin's anticancer effects. Here we showed that when non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells were treated with shikonin for 24h, 8.0µM shikonin significantly inhibited cell proliferation, while cells treated with less than 2.0µM shikonin for 24h significantly suppressed cell adhesion to the ECM, invasion and migration in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, real-time PCR and Western blot analysis showed that shikonin led to a reduction in the expression of integrin ß1 at the mRNA and protein levels. Further elucidation of the mechanisms involved revealed that shikonin repressed the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2). Taken together, our findings provide new evidence that shikonin suppresses lung cancer invasion and metastasis by inhibiting integrin ß1 expression and the ERK1/2 signaling pathway.