Hernandezine is isolated from an
herbal medicine that selectively
inhibits multidrug resistance and improves the efficacy of drugs for
cancer treatment. To date, no studies on hernandezine in melanoma
have been conducted. In this study, hernandezine was found to inhibit
proliferation and induce apoptosis in melanoma A375 cells and B16
cells. In hernandezine-treated melanoma cells, G0/G1 cycle arrest
occurred accompanied by significantly downregulated levels of phosphorylated
JAK2 and STAT3. In addition, the cycle arrest could be enhanced by
AG490 (JAK2 inhibitor), suggesting that the JAK2/STAT3 pathway is
involved in cell cycle regulation in hernandezine-treated melanoma
cells. Hernandezine-treated melanoma cells exhibited autophagy-specific
structures, autophagy markers (LC3II/LC3-I), and autophagic flow over
time. Moreover, 3-MA (autophagy inhibitor) significantly inhibited
apoptosis, indicating that hernandezine promotes apoptosis by inducing
autophagy. Combined with differential expression of P-AMPK, P-ACC
(downstream targets of adenine monophosphate activated protein kinase,
AMPK), and P-p70S6K (downstream targets of mammalian target of rapamycin,
mTOR) and significant inhibition of apoptosis by AMPK inhibitor complex
C (CC) in hernandezine-treated melanoma cells suggested that hernandezine
could induce autophagy via the AMPK–mTOR pathway, thereby inducing
apoptosis. This study first analyzed the effect of melanoma cells
by hernandezine and provided a theory for hernandezine in the treatment
of melanoma.