Endometrial cancer
(EC) is one of the three most common gynecological
cancers in female groups. Gambogic acid (GA), a natural caged xanthone,
exerts significantly antitumor effects on many cancers. However, its
efficacy on EC and pharmacological mechanism of action remain marginal
up to now. This study suggested that GA had significant inhibitory
effects on EC in vitro and in vivo, and no toxicity to normal cells
or mice. In detail, GA suppressed cell proliferation, induced cell
apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest at G
0
/G
1
stage,
complied with the network pharmacology analysis, showed that the PI3K/Akt
pathways were the most important signaling, and their protein and
mRNA expression levels were confirmed by qRT-PCR and Western blot
experiments. In all, our study first proved that GA could inhibit
cell proliferation, induce cell apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest at
G
0
/G
1
stage via the PI3K/Akt pathways, so GA
would be a good therapy for EC.