Cellular effect of styrene substituted biscoumarin caused cellular apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in human breast cancer cells

3,3'-((3,4,5-trifluoropHenyl)methylene)bis(4-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one) inhibit lung cancer cell proliferation and migration

Lung cancer is a major public health challenge and, despite therapeutic improvements, is the first leading cause of cancer worldwide. The current cure rate from advanced cancer treatment is excessively low. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify novel, potent and less toxic anticancer agents for the treatment of lung cancer. The aim of our research is to synthesize a new biscoumarin 3,3'-((3,4,5-trifluorop -phenyl)methylene)bis(4-hydroxy-2H-chromen-2-one) (C35) as an anticancer agent. C35 was simply prepared by 4-hydroxycoumarin and 3,4,5-trifluorobenzaldehyde under ethanol and its structure was analyzed by spectroscopic analyses. The anti-proliferation effect of C35 was detected using CCK-8 assay. Migration abilities were measured by Transwell assay. The expression of correlated proteins was determined by Western blot. The results showed that C35 displayed strong cytostatic effects on lung cancer cell proliferation. In addition, C35 possessed a significant inhibition of migration by reducing the expression of matrix metalloproteinases-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, C35 treatment suppressed the phosphorylation of p38 in lung cancer cells. Moreover, in vivo experiments were carried out, in which we treated Lewis tumor-bearing C57 mice via intraperitoneal injection of C35. Results showed that C35 inhibited tumor growth in vivo. In conclusion, our study demonstrated the anticancer activity of C35 via suppression of lung cancer cell proliferation and migration, which is possibly involved with the inhibition of the p38 pathway.

Dual regulation of Akt and glutathione caused by isoalantolactone effectively triggers human ovarian cancer cell apoptosis

<p indent="0mm">Ovarian cancer is one of leading causes of cancer death in gynecological tumor. Isoalantolactone (IL), present in several medicinal plants, exhibits various biological activities, and its mechanism underlying anti-ovarian cancer activity needs to be further investigated. Here, we find that IL inhibits the proliferation of SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 cells by causing G2/M phase arrest and inducing apoptosis. Moreover, IL decreases intracellular glutathione (GSH) level, and induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in SKOV-3 cells. Furthermore, IL induces inactivation of Akt which is required for the cytotoxicity of IL. In addition, overexpression of Akt attenuates the IL-induced growth inhibition and ROS generation. GSH supplementation moderately increases the expression of phospho-Akt. Further investigation reveals that pretreatment with L-buthionine-sulfoximine (a GSH biosynthesis inhibitor) restores the Akt-mediated attenuation of growth inhibition induced by IL. Moreover, co-treatment with IL and wortmannin (an Akt pathway inhibitor) increases the growth inhibition attenuated by pretreatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (a precursor for GSH biosynthesis). These results indicate that inactivation of Akt and downregulation of GSH level induced by IL are related to each other. In conclusion, combined targeting Akt and GSH is an effective strategy for cancer therapy and IL can be a promising anticancer agent for further exploration.</p>.

Structural characteristics of a low molecular weight velvet antler protein and the anti-tumor activity on S180 tumor-bearing mice

Velvet antler is a traditional Chinese medicine with various pharmacological values, which is an important raw material for traditional Chinese medicinal wine. Nevertheless, the chemical compositions and bioactivities of velvet antler residue used for making medicinal wine are rarely reported, leading to a waste of resources. In this study, a velvet antler protein (VA-pro) was extracted from velvet antler residue by simulating the gastrointestinal digestion, and its composition, structural characteristics and in vivo anti-tumor activities were determined and investigated. VA-pro possessed high purity with a relatively low molecular weight as 22.589 kDa under HPLC, one- and two-dimensional electrophoresis, and it contained high contents of Pro, Gly, Glu and Ala. Besides, the secondary structure of VA-pro was dominated by β-turn and β-sheet, and VA-pro possessed similar protein sequence, isoelectric point and amino acid compositions to hypothetical protein G4228_020061. The in vivo results substantiated that VA-pro could improve the body weights and immune organ indices, increase the expressions of sera cytokines and regulate the distributions of T and B lymphocytes subsets in peripheral blood of S180 tumor-bearing mice. Furthermore, VA-pro could effectively inhibit solid S180 tumors growth by inducing S phase cell cycle arrest mediated through mitochondria. To summarize, our study provided theoretical support that VA-pro had the potential to be used as an immunopotentiator in immunocompromised or cancer-bearing hosts.

Hydroponic Ginseng ROOT Mediated with CMC Polymer-Coated Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Cellular Apoptosis via Downregulation of BCL-2 Gene Expression in A549 Lung Cancer Cell Line

The unique and tailorable physicochemical features of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) synthesized from green sources make them attractive for use in cancer treatment. Hydroponic-cultured ginseng-root-synthesized ZnO-NPs (HGRCm-ZnO NPs) were coated with O-carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) polymer, which stabilized and enhanced the biological efficacy of the nanoparticles. Nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The flower-shaped nanoparticles were crystalline in nature with a particle size of 28 nm. To evaluate if these NPs had anti-lung cancer activity, analysis was performed on a human lung carcinoma cell line (A549). HGRCm-ZnO nanoparticles showed less toxicity to normal keratinocytes (HaCaTs), at concentrations up to 20 µg/mL, than A549 cancer cells. Additionally, these NPs showed dose-dependent colony formation and cell migration inhibition ability, which makes them more promising for lung cancer treatment. Additionally, Hoechst and propidium iodide dye staining also confirmed that the NP formulation had apoptotic activity in cancer cells. Further, to evaluate the mechanism of cancer cell death via checking the gene expression, HGRCm ZnO NPs upregulated the BAX and Caspase 3 and 9 expression levels but downregulated Bcl-2 expression, indicating that the nanoformulation induced mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis. Moreover, these preliminary results suggest that HGRCm ZnO NPs can be a potential candidate for future lung cancer treatment.

Selenium-Modified Chitosan Induces HepG2 Cell Apoptosis and Differential Protein Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Chitosan is the product of the natural polysaccharide chitin removing part of the acetyl group, and exhibits various physiological and bioactive functions. Selenium modification has been proved to further enhance the chitosan bioactivities, and has been a hot topic recently.

METHODS

The present study aimed to investigate the potential inhibitory mechanism of selenium-modified chitosan (SMC) on HepG2 cells through MTT assays, morphological observation, annexin V-FITC/PI double staining, mitochondrial membrane potential determination, cell-cycle detection, Western blotting, and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE).

RESULTS

The results indicated that SMC can induce HepG2 cell apoptosis with the cell cycle arrested in the S and G2/M phases and gradual disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential, reduce the expression of Bcl2, and improve the expression of Bax, cytochrome C, cleaved caspase 9, and cleaved caspase 3. Also, 2-DE results showed that tubulin α1 B chain, myosin regulatory light chain 12A, calmodulin, UPF0568 protein chromosome 14 open reading frame 166, and the cytochrome C oxidase subunit 5B of HepG2 cells were downregulated in HepG2 cells after SMC treatment.

DISCUSSION

These data suggested that HepG2 cells induced apoptosis after SMC treatment via blocking the cell cycle in the S and G2/M phases, which might be mediated through the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. These results could be of benefit to future practical applications of SMC in the food and drug fields.

Aqueous Extract of Sea Squirt (Halocynthia roretzi) with Potent Activity against Human Cancer Cells Acts Synergistically with Doxorubicin

Marine ascidian is becoming one of the main sources of an antitumor drug that has shown high bioactivity and extensive application in cancer treatment. Halocynthia roretzi, an edible marine sea squirt, has been demonstrated to have various kinds of biological activities, such as anti-diabetic, anti-hypertension, and enhancing immunity. In this study, we reported that aqueous extracts from the edible parts of H. roretzi presented significantly inhibiting the efficiency on HepG-2 cell viability. The separate mixed compound exhibited strong effects of inhibitory proliferation and induced apoptosis via the generation of ROS along with the concurrent loss of mitochondrial membrane potential on tumor cells. Furthermore, we found that there existed a significantly synergistic effect of the ascidian-extracted compound mixture with the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. In the presence of the extracts from H. roretzi, the dose of doxorubicin at the cellular level could be reduced by a half dose. The extracts were further divided by semipreparative-HPLC and the active ingredients were identified as a mixture of fatty amide, which was composed of hexadecanamide, stearamide, and erucamide by UHPLC-MS/MS. Our results suggest that the potential toxicity of ascidian H. roretzi in tumor cells, and the compounds extracted from H. roretzi could be potentially utilized on functional nutraceuticals or as an adjunct in combination with chemotherapy.

Spectroscopic and computational studies of the solid state photophysical properties of a biscoumarin dye

The solid state photophysical properties of the 3,3'-paraphenyl bis[6,8-dimethoxy-2H-chromen-2-one] symmetrical biscoumarin material were investigated by optical spectroscopy techniques and by theoretical calculations. Vibrational analysis using IR absorption and Raman scattering techniques carried out together with DFT theoretical calculations have confirmed the structure of this biscoumarin. The geometry optimization using different functionals reveal a nonplanar equilibrium structure with a dihedral between the phenyl and the pyran rings of about 142°. The UV-Visible absorption measurements and the TDDFT simulation show that this biscoumarin is characterized by a bicomponent feature resulting from ππ* electronic transitions and Intramolecular Charge Transfer (ICT). Solid state photoluminescence showed a bright blue-green emission at 506 nm with a large stokes shift estimated at 146 nm, and the temperature dependence study of this emission reveals two thermal evolution regimes. Finally, these good optical properties, as well as the stability of the emission, make this biscoumarin dye of potential interest for optoelectronic applications.

Targeting Estrogen Receptor-Positive Breast Microtumors with Endoxifen-Conjugated, Hypoxia-Sensitive Polymersomes

Endoxifen is the primary active metabolite of tamoxifen, a nonsteroidal-selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) and widely used medication to treat estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. In this study, endoxifen was conjugated to the surface of polymeric nanoparticles (polymersomes) for targeted delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) to estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells (MCF7). Rapid cell growth and insufficient blood supply result in low oxygen concentration (hypoxia) within the solid breast tumors. The polymersomes developed here are prepared from amphiphilic copolymers of polylactic acid (PLA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) containing diazobenzene as the hypoxia-responsive linker. We prepared two nanoparticle formulations: DOX-encapsulated hypoxia-responsive polymersomes (DOX-HRPs) and endoxifen-conjugated, DOX-encapsulated hypoxia-responsive polymersomes (END-DOX-HRPs). Cellular internalization studies demonstrated eight times higher cytosolic and nuclear localization after incubating breast cancer cells with END-DOX-HRPs (targeted polymersomes) in contrast to DOX-HRPs (nontargeted polymersomes). Cytotoxicity studies on monolayer cell cultures exhibited that END-DOX-HRPs were three times more toxic to ER+ MCF7 cells than DOX-HRPs and free DOX in hypoxia. The cell viability studies on three-dimensional hypoxic cultures also demonstrated twice as much toxicity when the spheroids were treated with targeted polymersomes instead of nontargeted counterparts. This is the first report of surface-decorated polymeric nanoparticles with endoxifen ligands for targeted drug delivery to ER+ breast cancer microtumors. The newly designed endoxifen-conjugated, hypoxia-responsive polymersomes might have translational potential for ER+ breast cancer treatment.

Synergistic effect of anethole and doxorubicin alleviates cell proliferation, cell cycle arrest, and ER stress and promotes ROS-mediated apoptosis in triple-negative breast cancer cells

The heterogeneity and poor prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) have limited the treatment options and made clinical management challenging. This has nurtured a major effort to discover druggable molecular targets. Currently, chemotherapy is the primary treatment strategy for this disease. Doxorubicin is the most frequently used chemotherapeutic drug for TNBC and due to the fact that chemotherapeutic drugs have a lot of side effects, we evaluated the synergistic effect of the phytocompound anethole and doxorubicin. The cytotoxic effect of anethole in combination with doxorubicin on MDA-MB-231 cells was evaluated by various parameters, including apoptosis, cell cycle analysis, DNA damage, and cell proliferation. Furthermore, mitochondrial membranepotential (MMP), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were also evaluated in the cells treated with/without anethole and doxorubicin. Expression of the apoptotic proteins was evaluated by Western blot analysis. Initial evaluation of cytotoxicity of anethole on MDA-MB-231 cells demonstrated preferential suppression of cell proliferation and when treated along with doxorubicin it showed enhanced cytotoxicity with a synergistic effect. Cell cycle analysis revealed arrest at different stages of the cell cycle, such as sub G0-G1, G0-G1, S, and G2M in various treatment groups and apoptotic cell death was subsequently evident with propidium iodide (PI) staining. The synergistic action of anethole and doxorubicin effectively induced mitochondrial membrane potential loss, which, in turn, led to a burst of ROS production, which eventually produced unfolded protein response by damaging the ER. Synergistic anticancer effect was observed on exposure of MDA-MB-231 cells to anethole and doxorubicin in inducing cell death.

New Laboratory Protocol to Determine the Oxidative Stress Profile of Human Nasal Epithelial Cells Using Flow Cytometry

Several studies have shown the importance of oxidative stress (OS) in respiratory disease pathogenesis. It has been reported that the nasal epithelium may act as a surrogate for the bronchial epithelium in several respiratory diseases involving OS. However, the sample yields obtained from nasal biopsies are modest, limiting the number of parameters that can be determined. Flow cytometry has been widely used to evaluate cellular OS profiles. It has the advantage that analyses can be performed using a small amount of sample. Therefore, we aimed to set up a new method based on flow cytometry to assess the oxidative profile of human nasal epithelial cells which could be used in research on respiratory diseases. Levels of total nitric oxide, superoxide anion, peroxynitrite, and intracellular peroxides were measured. Reduced thiol levels, such as antioxidant-reduced glutathione and oxidative damaged lipids and proteins, were also analysed. The intracellular calcium levels, plasma membrane potential, apoptosis, and percentage of live cells were also studied. Finally, a strategy to evaluate the mitochondrial function, including mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide, superoxide anion, mitochondrial mass, and membrane potential, was set up. Using small amounts of sample and a non-invasive sampling technique, the described method enables the measurement of a comprehensive set of OS parameters in nasal epithelial cells, which could be useful in research on respiratory diseases.

Effect of in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion on structural characteristics and anti-proliferative activities of the polysaccharides from the shells of Juglans regia L

The present research was designed to investigate the effects of simulated gastrointestinal digestion in vitro on the structural characteristics and anti-proliferative activities of polysaccharides from the shells of Juglans regia L. (JRP). Results suggested that JRP was composed of glucose, ribose, galactose, mannose, arabinose and rhamnose in a molar ratio of 10.7:4.9:16.4:2.3:10.8:2.3, with the molecular weight distributed from 3.21 × 10⁵ to 4.55 × 10⁵ Da. JRP belonged to non-crystalline substance, with irregular, smooth and compact morphological characteristics. Nevertheless, during gastrointestinal digestion in vitro, the physicochemical properties of JRP including molecular weight, monosaccharide composition, crystalline properties and morphology were significantly changed, accompanying with the increase of reducing sugar in digestive juice. Through measurements of anti-proliferation activities, the results showed that the digested JRP could remarkably inhibit the viabilities of HeLa cells by induction of apoptosis as a result of the excessive ROS accumulation and cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase, all of which were pronouncedly stronger than the ones induced by undigested JRP. These findings suggested that JRP processed by gastrointestinal digestion possessed more potential anti-proliferative applications that need to be exploited.

Antitumor effects of seleno-short-chain chitosan (SSCC) against human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells

Seleno-short-chain chitosan (SSCC) is a derivative of chitosan. In the present study, we sought to investigate the underlying antitumor mechanism of SSCC on human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells in vitro. MTT assay suggested that SSCC exhibited a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the proliferation of BGC-823 cells. We found the SSCC-treated cells showed typical morphological characteristics of apoptosis in a dose dependent manner by observing on microscope. Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining and cell cycle assay identified that SSCC could induce BGC-823 cells apoptosis by triggering G2/M phase arrest. Our research provided the first evidence that SSCC could effectively induce the apoptosis of BGC-823 cells via an intrinsic mitochondrial pathway, as indicated by inducing the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), the excessive accumulation of reactive oxidative species (ROS), the increase of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and the activation of caspase 3, caspase 9 and cytochrome C (Cyt-C) in BGC-823 cells. These combined results clearly indicated that SSCC could induce BGC-823 cells apoptosis by the involvement of mitochondrial signaling pathway, which provided precise experimental evidence for SSCC as a potential agent in the prevention and treatment of human gastric cancer.

Coumarin-containing hybrids and their anticancer activities

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and it results in around 9 million deaths annually. The anticancer agents play an intriguing role in the treatment of cancers, while the severe anticancer scenario and the emergence of drug-resistant especially multidrug-resistant cancers create a huge demand for novel anticancer drugs with different mechanisms of action. The coumarin scaffold is ubiquitous in nature and is a highly privileged motif for the development of novel drugs due to its biodiversity and versatility. Coumarin derivatives can exert diverse antiproliferative mechanisms, and some of them such as Irosustat are under clinical trials for the treatment of various cancers, revealing their potential as putative anticancer drugs. Hybridization of coumarin moiety with other anticancer pharmacophores is a promising strategy to reduce side effects, overcome the drug resistance, and may provide valuable therapeutic intervention for the treatment of cancers. Thus, coumarin-containing hybrids occupy an important position in the development of novel anticancer agents. This review aims to summarize the recent advances made towards the development of coumarin-containing hybrids as potential anticancer agents, covering articles published between 2015 and 2019, and the structure-activity relationship together with mechanisms of action are also discussed.

Integrated transcriptome and in vitro analysis revealed anti-proliferative effect of citral in human stomach cancer through apoptosis

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally, particularly stomach cancer is third most common causes of cancer death worldwide. Citral possesses anti-tumor activity in various cancer cell lines, However its effect toward stomach cancer and its mechanism of action is have yet to be elucidated. The goal of the present study is to elucidate the role of citral in stomach cancer using transcriptome and in vitro approaches. We performed transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq and explored its capability to persuade apoptosis in AGS human stomach cancer cell lines in vitro. Furthermore, the enrichment and KEGG pathway results suggested that there are several genes involved to induce apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, our study also demonstrated that citral arrested colony formation and migration of cancer cells significantly than that of untreated cells. RNA-seq revealed a total of 125 million trimmed reads obtained from both control and citral treated groups respectively. A total number of 612 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified which includes 216 genes up-regulated and 396 genes down-regulated genes after treatment. The enrichment analysis identified DEGs genes from transcriptome libraries including cell death, cell cycle, apoptosis and cell growth. The present study showed the significant inhibition effect upon citral by regulating various genes involved in signaling pathways, inhibits metastasis, colony formation and induced apoptosis both in silico and in vitro.

Selenious-β-lactoglobulin induces the apoptosis of human lung cancer A549 cells via an intrinsic mitochondrial pathway

In this study, the cytotoxic activity of selenious-β-lactoglobulin (Se-β-Lg) and the anticancer mechanism were investigated in human lung cancer A549 cells in vitro. MTT assay showed that Se-β-Lg at 200 μg/mL exhibited a significant suppression effect on A549 cells and the maximum inhibition rate reached 90% after 72 h treatment. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that 200 μg/mL of Se-β-Lg induced cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase. Cell apoptosis was induced via the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) in a time-dependent manner. Furthermore, Se-β-Lg suppressed the expression of Bcl-2 and improved the level of Bax, leading to the release of cytochrome c and a higher expression of caspase-3 in A549 cells. In summary, Se-β-Lg could induce apoptosis in A549 cells via an intrinsic mitochondrial pathway and it might serve as a potential therapeutic agent for human lung cancer.

In silico and in vitro analysis of coumarin derivative induced anticancer effects by undergoing intrinsic pathway mediated apoptosis in human stomach cancer

BACKGROUND

Coumarin plays a vital role in drug discovery process due to its diverse biologically active components. Recently, coumarin derivatives are paying attention to treat various diseases including cancer. The effect of coumarin derivatives on gastric cancer is not well established although gastric cancer being the fourth leading cancer. Therefore, we attempt to study the effect of styrene substituted biscoumarin (SSBC) to induce apoptosis and inhibit cancer proliferation using in silico and in vitro approaches.

METHODS

We performed 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay to identify the anti-proliferative activity of SSBC in stomach cancer cell lines (AGS) and toxicity of the compared was also assessed using lung normal cell lines (L-132 and MRC-5). A docking study was carried out between anti-apoptotic protein (BCL2) and SSBC compound. Furthermore, we analyzed the drug likeliness by screening pharmacological properties (ADME) and biological activity of SSBC by performing spectrum prediction analysis (PASS). The apoptotic effect of SSBC in AGS cell lines were detected using flow cytometry (FACS), Hoechst staining and DAPI/PI staining. Later, the regulation of apoptotic pathway by SSBC was also confirmed by qRT-PCR and western blotting analysis.

RESULTS

The inhibition concentration (IC₅₀) of SSBC was assayed against AGS and lung normal cell lines (L-132 and MRC-5). The IC₅₀ value of SSBC toward AGS, L-132 and MRC-5 was 4.56, 268 and 285 μg/ml, respectively. In silico analysis predicted SSBC could bind to the active site of BH3 domain of anti-apoptotic protein and thus resulted in apoptotic mediated cell death. ADME prediction of SSBC exhibit strong binding capacity of 99.08% and showed absorption rate about 95.57% in the intestine. In addition, biological activity of SSBC was also predicted using PASS program and we found SSBC exhibit high activity for various cancer related protein expression including apoptosis pathway proteins such as caspase 3 stimulant, apoptosis agonist. Furthermore, apoptosis of AGS was also assessed using Hoechst staining, DAPI/PI analysis, flow-cytometric analysis, qRT-PCR and western blot analysis.

CONCLUSION

Our study denotes that SSBC could be very effective against AGS by inducing apoptosis through intrinsic pathway and recommended for in vivo and human trials.

GLA supplementation regulates PHD2 mediated hypoxia and mitochondrial apoptosis in DMBA induced mammary gland carcinoma

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of gamma linolenic acid (GLA) on mitochondrial mediated death apoptosis, hypoxic microenvironment and cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway against 7, 12-dimethylbenz (a) anthracene (DMBA) induced mammary gland carcinoma. The effects of GLA were evaluated morphologically and biochemically against DMBA induced mammary gland carcinoma. The metabolic study was done for evaluation of biomarkers using ¹H NMR. The present study was also verified through immunoblotting and qRT-PCR studies for the evaluation of various pathways. GLA treatment has a delineate implementation upon morphology of the tissues when evaluated through carmine staining, hematoxyline and eosin staining and scanning electron microscopy. GLA also demarked a commendatory proclamation of the fifteen key serum metabolites analogous with amino acid metabolism and fatty acid metabolism when recognized through¹H NMR studies. The immunoblotting and qRT-PCR studies accomplished that GLA mediated mitochondrial death apoptosis, curtail hypoxic microenvironment along with hindrance of de novo fatty acid synthesis and also mediate the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway to proclaim its anticancer effects.