Autophagy is involved in anticancer effects of matrine on SGC-7901 human gastric cancer cells

Abstract

Abstract. Matrine has a wide range of pharmacological effects including antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. Autophagy is closely associated with tumors and plays an important role in human tumor suppression, so inducing autophagy is a potential therapeutic strategy in adjuvant chemotherapy. the aim of this study was to investigate whether or not autophagy is involved in antitumor effects of matrine on human gastric cancer sgc-7901 cells, and to further elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms. sulphorhodamine B (srB) assay was used to examine matrine's cytotoxicity against sgc-7901 gastric cancer cells. the effects of matrine on the cell cycle and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry, and cellular morphology was observed under an inverted phase contrast microscope and transmission electron microscope. Monodansylcadaverine (MDc) staining was used to detect autophagy. the expression levels of Bax and Beclin 1 in sgc-7901 cells were monitored by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rt-pcr). The results showed that matrine significantly inhibited the proliferation of sgc-7901 gastric cancer cells and induced g1-phase cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, both autophagy and apoptosis were activated during the matrine-induced death of sgc-7901 cells. Beclin 1 is involved in matrine-induced autophagy and the pro-apoptotic mechanisms of matrine may be associated with its up-regulation of Bax expression. These findings indicate that matrine is a potent antitumor agent for treating gastric cancer. the ability of matrine to induce autophagy underlines its potential utility as a new gastric cancer treatment modality.

Matrine effectively inhibits the proliferation of breast cancer cells through a mechanism related to the NF-κB signaling pathway

“…It may also be used as an antioxidant, as it promotes cell metabolism and regulates immune activity (7–9). As matrine has therapeutic effects on various solid tumors, including liver, lung, stomach, esophageal, colorectal, cervical and ovarian cancer, as well as malignant lymphoma (11–13), the present study investigated whether matrine has antitumor effects on three breast cancer cell lines, ER-positive MCF7 cells, HER2-positive BT-474 cells and highly metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells.…”

“…Matrine may also be used as an antioxidant that acts by promoting cell metabolism and regulating immune activities (7–10). It has been demonstrated that matrine has therapeutic effects on a variety of solid tumors, including breast, lung, stomach, esophageal, colorectal, cervical and ovarian cancer, as well as malignant lymphoma (11–13). However, the molecular mechanism underlying the antitumor function of matrine remains unclear.…”

Alkaloids Isolated from Natural Herbs as the Anticancer Agents

“…Matrine inhibits the proliferation of various types of cancer cells mainly through mediation of G 1 cell cycle arrest or apoptosis [59, 60, 62–64]. Apoptosis and autophagy could be both induced by matrine in human cancer cells, such as hepatoma G2 cells and SGC-7901 cells [65, 66]. Matrine also induces the differentiation of K562 cells and presents antiangiogenesis activities [67, 68].…”

Autophagy as a novel strategy for treatment of gastric cancer: A hypothesis

“…Although autophagy has been induced in many different cancer cell lines, including gastric cancer cells using different agents such as chemotherapeutics [11,12], the role of autophagy in tumor cell death or survival is still unclear. Autophagy has several adaptive roles in diverse human pathologies, including cancer and other diseases, and can act as a cytoprotective survival pathway.…”