Abstract. Resveratrol (Res), a natural polyphenolic compound, has anticancer activity in a variety of cancers. In the present study, the antitumor effect and underlying molecular mechanism of Res on rat C6 glioma growth was studied. The results demonstrated that Res inhibited glioma cell proliferation, arrested cell cycle in S phase and induced apoptosis in vitro. Res also suppressed intracranial C6 tumor growth in vivo and prolonged survival in a fraction of the rats bearing intracranial gliomas. Res significantltly downregulated the specific miRs, including miR-21, miR-30a-5p and miR-19, which have been identified as oncomiRs in our previous studies, and altered the expression of their targeting and crucial genes for glioma formation and progression such as p53, PTEN, EGFR, STAT3, COX-2, NF-ÎșB and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. Therefore, the anti-glioma effect of Res, at least in part, is through the regulation of oncogenic miRNAs. The effect of Res on noncoding RNAs should be studied further. Res is a potential multi-targeting drug for the treatment of gliomas.
IntroductionMalignant gliomas are the most common and highly aggressive primary brain tumors. Even using multiple modalities of treatment, including maximal safe resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the prognosis of patients with malignant gliomas remains dismal (1,2). Therefore, novel therapeutic strategies and drugs for treatment of malignant gliomas are urgently required.A large number of chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents have been discovered from natural products and provided promising approaches to treat and prevent cancer (3,4). Res (3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene), a naturally polyphenolic compound, has been identified in the skin of red grapes, peanuts and various food products. It has a variety of important biological effects such as suppression of platelet aggregation, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and vasorelaxant activities (5-7). Res also exhibits antitumor properties by blocking the three stages of carcinogenesis, initiation, promotion and progression (8). Res has exerted anticancer effects against prostate, breast, leukemia and other epithelial cancer cells. There are some reports on the studies of the treatment of gliomas with Res (9-12) but the molecular mechanism of its antitumorigenic or chemopreventive activities is complex and not fully understood.The objective of the present study was to investigate the anti-proliferative effect of Res on glioma cells using both in vitro and in vivo models. It is well known that small non-coding regulatory RNAs -microRNAs (miRs) are found to be dysregulated in almost all types of cancers and play important roles in cancer development and progression (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Recent studies have demonstrated that miRs can be regulated by natural agents such as curcumin and Res resulting in suppression of tumor growth, drug resistance and metastasis (18-21). Our previous studies have confirmed that specific miRs, including miR-21, miR19 and miR-30a-5p are upregulated in GBMs with significa...