Autophagy and apoptosis are involved in the development of a variety of cancers. Fucoxanthin is a natural compound known to have antitumor effects, so we aimed to explore its effects on autophagy and apoptosis in gastric cancer SGC7901 cells. Specifically, we performed methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay, transmission electron microscopy, real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot analysis, immunofluorescence assay, and cell apoptosis analysis to clarify the role of fucoxanthin in SGC-7901 cells. Our results indicate that fucoxanthin significantly inhibits the viability of SGC-7901 cells, effectively inducing both autophagy and apoptosis by up-regulating the expressions of beclin-1, LC3, and cleaved caspase-3 (CC3), and by down regulating Bcl-2. Fucoxanthin-induced autophagy also seems to occur before, and may promote apoptosis.

Nebracetam has been recently proposed to have a neuroprotective action and cognitive enhancing effect being characteristic of a nootropic drug, while the mechanisms remained ambiguity. In this study, we investigated the protective effects of nebracetam on hippocampus neurons injury-induced by β-amyloid protein(Aβ25-35)and its mechanisms. Hippocampus neurons were treated with nebracetam (0.05 mM, 0.2 mM or 0.8 mM) or Aβ25-35 (20 uM/L). We found that Nebracetam significantly reduced apoptotic induced by Aβ25-35 and increase in the total number of dendritic spines and dendritic spine density in a dose-dependent manner. RT-PCR assay and Western blotting analysis revealed that nebracetam increased the expressions of myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1), B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) and activity regulated cytoskeleton associated protein (Arc) in Aβ25-35-treated hippocampus neurons. Cotreatment nebracetam with MRTF-A (Myocardin-related transcription factor-A) siRNA reversed Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Arc mRNA and protein levels. What's more, the luciferase assays indicated that the transcriptional activities of Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Arc genes were significantly abolished by MRTF-A siRNA while it showed no changes on activities of mut Mcl-1-promoter-luc, mut Bcl-2-promoter-luc and mut Arc-promoter-luc. Additionally, the up-regulation of Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Arc protein expressions in nebracetam-treated group was inhibited by extracellular signal regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor PH98059. These results demonstrated that nebracetam inhibited Aβ25-35-induced hippocampus neurons injury by enhancing the transactivity of Mcl-1, Bcl-2 and Arc, which may actively based in MRTF-A-CArGdependent manner by thwarting the ERK1/2 pathway.