Inhibition of Morusin From Mulberry Branches As An Agro-Waste to MDA-MB-453 and HCT116 Cancer Cells By Inducing Cell Apoptosis and Disturbing The Cell Cycle

Abstract

Mulberry tree branches are one of the largest agro-wastes produced in silk industry. How to make full use of this waste has always been one of the most important issues for the silk industry and even the entire biological industry. The paper has first reported that the inhibition of morusin recovered from mulberry branch barks, a prenylated flavonoid, on 20 kinds of tumour cells, of which the IC50 values of the 80% cells reaches about 15 µM. Second, effects on the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of two cancer cells were investigated in detail. The experimental results showed that the apoptotic ratio of the high concentration was 77.73% in MDA-MB-453 cells. Western blotting displayed that morusin upregulated E-cadherin and downregulated vimentin and N-cadherin in a dose-dependent manner, and thus reversed epithelial-mesenchymal transition. It could upregulate cleaved Caspase-3 and Bax and downregulate Caspase-3 and Bcl-2, which indicate that the cell apoptosis is induced by morusin. These cancer cells, MDA-MB-453, were blocked in G2 phase, and HCT116 were arrested in S phase when treated with morusin, which is possible that the cell cycle is disturbed. Therefore, morusin could inhibit cancer migration and growth and promote cancer cell apoptosis.