• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.1708-1716
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• 2016

The Akt/mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is activated in the majority of human cancers. Activation of the Akt/mTOR pathway confers resistance to many types of cancer therapy. In this study, we evaluated the apoptotic effect of ethanol extract of Artemisia annua L. through down-regulation of Akt signal pathways and the mitochondrial pathway in hepato-carcinoma cells (HepG2). A. annua extract is known as a medicinal herb that is effective against cancer. We evaluated anti-proliferative activity by MTT-based viability assay and apoptotic effect by Annexin-V/PI staining, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and caspase-3/7 activity as determined by flow cytometry. A. annua treatment led to loss of MMP, resulting in cytochrome c-inducible activation of caspase-3/7. Treatment with A. annua extract reduced activities of Akt/mTOR/anti-apoptotic proteins (such as Bcl-2 and $Bcl-X_L$), leading to increased activation of tumor suppressor p53 and pro-apoptotic proteins (such as Bax and Bak). We applied LY294002 (inhibitor of Akt) and rapamycin (inhibitor of mTOR) to determine the relationship between signal transduction of proteins associated with apoptosis. LY294002 and rapamycin significantly reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis. These results indicate that Bcl-2 and caspase-3 are key regulators in A. annua extract-induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells and are controlled through the Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.395-401
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• 2006

In this study, we investigated anticarcinogenic effects of extracts from Gloiopeltis tenax (GT). GT was extracted with methanol (GTM), which was then further fractionated into four fractions by using solvent fractionation method, affording methanol (GTMM), hexane (GTMH), butanol (GTMB) and aqueous (GTMA) soluble fractions. We determined the cytotoxic effects of these fractions on cancer cells by MTT assay. Among various fractions of GT, the GTMM showed the strongest cytotoxic effect at concentration of $150{\mu}g/mL$, displaying 95.97% on HepG2 cell lines and 93.64% on HT-29 cell lines, respectively. And, the anti-proliferative effect of GT was accompanied by a marked in increase of levels of Bad, Bax, Bok and Bak protein and activation of caspase-3, caspase-7 and PARP protein. Also, we observed quinone reductase (QR) induced effects in all fraction layers of GT on HepG2 cells. The QR induced effects of the GTMM and GTMB on HepG2 cells at concentration of $60{\mu}g/mL$ showing inductive indexes of 2.86 and 2.04 compared to the control value of 1.0.