• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.9
• /
• pp.4223-4231
• /
• 2016

Background: Development of new apoptosis-inducing drugs is a promising trend in anticancer therapy. For this purpose several formamidinoderivatives of doxorubicin were synthesized. The aim of our study was to investigate effects of the five formamidinodoxorubicins in the ES-2 human ovarian clear cell carcinoma line, for comparison with data obtained previously for SKOV-3 human ovarian adenocarcinoma cells, to answer the question of whether and to what extent the histological cell type is a possible determinant of sensitivity to tested anthracyclines. Materials and Methods: In our experimental work the following methods were used: spectrophotometric assays with MTT; fluorimetric assays - double staining with Hoechst 33258 and propidium iodide (PI), measurement of caspase-3, -8, -9 activity, intracellular accumulation of DOX and analogues, estimation of drug uptake, mitochondrial transmembrane potential; flow cytometry - phosphatidylserine (PS) externalization with annexin V-FITC and PI fluorochromes. Results: Effects of the derivatives of doxorubicin were partially linked with the specific type of cancer cell although intracellular accumulation and cellular uptake of DOX and derivatives were similar in both. All of the investigated derivatives were considerably more cytotoxic than DOX. Formamidinodoxorubicins were able to induce caspase-dependent apoptotic cell death in both cell types. Conclusions: All new formamidine derivatives of DOX were able to induce caspase - dependent apoptosis in human ovarian cancer cell lines SKOV-3 and ES-2. Obtained results suggested that formamidine derivatives of DOX may be promising candidates for the prospective chemotherapeutic agents for the two different histological subtypes of ovarian cancer.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.640-646
• /
• 2017

In this study, we elucidated anti-cancer activity and potential molecular mechanism of 70% ethanol extracts from Taxilli Ramulus (Taxillus chinensis (DC.) Danser) (TR-E70) against human colorectal cancer cells. Anti-cell proliferative effect of TR-E70 was evaluated by MTT assay. The effect of TR-E70 on the expression of cyclin D1 in the protein and mRNA level was evaluated by Western blot and RT-PCR, respectively. TR-E70 suppressed the proliferation of human colorectal cancer cell lines, HCT116 and SW480. Although TR-E70 decreased cyclin D1 expression in protein and mRNA level, decreased level of cyclin D1 protein by TR-E70 more dramatically occurred than that of cyclin D1 mRNA. Cyclin D1 downregulation by TR-E70 was attenuated in presence of MG132. In addition, TR-E70 phosphorylated threonine-286 (T286) of cyclin D1. TR-E70-mediated cyclin D1 degradation was blocked in presence of LiCl as an inhibitor $GSK3{\beta}$ but not PD98059 as an ERK1/2 inhibitor and SB203580 as a p38 inhibitor. Our results suggest that TR-E70 may downregulate cyclin D1 as one of the potential anti-cancer targets through $GSK3{\beta}$-dependent cyclin D1 degradation. From these findings, TR-E70 has potential to be a candidate for the development of chemoprevention or therapeutic agents for human colorectal cancer.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.263-270
• /
• 2020

In this study, we evaluated the effect of the extracts from Lonicera caerulea leaves (LCLE), branches (LCBE) and fruits (LCFE) on the cell growth and migration in human colorectal cancer cells, HCT116 and SW480 cells. LCLE and LCBE dose- and time-dependently inhibited the proliferation of HCT116 and SW480 cells. However, LCFE did not affect the proliferation of HCT116 and SW480 cells. In addition, LCLE and LCBE dramatically cell migration and wound healing in HCT116 cells. LCLE and LCBE decreased β-catenin protein level but not mRNA level in HCT116 and SW480 cells. Furthermore, LCLE decreased TCF4 level in both protein and mRNA level in HCT116 and SW480 cells. However, LCBE decreased TCF4 protein level but not mRNA level in HCT116 and SW480 cells. Based on these findings, LCLE and LCBE may inhibit the cell proliferation and migration through blocking Wnt signaling activation in human colorectal cancer cells. Therefore, LCLE and LCBE may be a potential candidate for the development of chemopreventive or therapeutic agents for human colorectal cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.7
• /
• pp.3471-3476
• /
• 2012

Background and Objective: Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors represent a promising class of potential anticancer agents for treatment of human malignancies. In this study, we investigated the effect of trichostatin A (TSA), one such HDAC inhibitor, in combination with docetaxel (TXT), a cytotoxic chemotherapy agent or erlotinib, a novel molecular target therapy drug, on lung cancer A549 cells. Methods: A549 cells were treated with TXT, erlotinib alone or in combination with TSA, respectively. Cell viability, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution were evaluated using MTT (3- (4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) -2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay, Hochst33258 staining and flow cytometry. Moreover, immunofluorescent staining and Western blot analysis were employed to examine alterations of ${\alpha}$-tubulin, heat shock protein 90 (hsp90), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and caspase-3 in response to the different exogenous stimuli. Results: Compared with single-agent treatment, co-treatment of A549 cells with TSA/TXT or TSA/erlotinib synergistically inhibited cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, and caused cell cycle delay at the $G_2/M$ transition. Treatment with TSA/TXT or TSA/erlotinib led to a significant increase of cleaved caspase-3 expression, also resulting in elevated acetylation of ${\alpha}$-tubulin or hsp90 and decreased expression of EGFR, which was negatively associated with the level of acetylated hsp90. Conclusions: Synergistic anti-tumor effects are observed between TXT or erlotinib and TSA on lung cancer cells. Such combinations may provide a more effective strategy for treating human lung cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.915-921
• /
• 2015

Context: In the last half century, discovering, developing and introducing of clinical agents from marine sources have seen great successes, with examples including the anti-cancer compound trabectedin. However, with increasing need for new anticancer drugs, further exploration for novel compounds from marine organism sources is strongly justified. Objective: The major aim of this study was to evaluate the antitumor and antioxidant potential of Sargassum tenerrimum J.Agardh (Sargassaceae) on Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) in Swiss albino mice. Materials and Methods: An ethanol extract of S. tenerrimum (EEST) from whole algae was used to evaluate cytotoxicity followed by in vivo assessment of toxicity, using biochemical parameters including hepatic and non-hepatic enzymes. Antioxidant properties were examined in animals bearing EAC treated with daily oral administration of 100-300 mg/kg extract suspension. Results: Antitumor effects of EEST in EAC bearing mice was observed with LD50 1815 mg/kg. Parameters like body weight, tumor volume, packed cell volume, tumor cell count, mean survival time and increase in life span in animals in the EAC bearing animals treated with EEST 300 mg/kg was comparable with control group. Significant differences were also seen with changes in total protein content, hepatic enzymes contents, MDA level, and free radical scavenging enzymes in untreated vs. EEST treated group animals. Conclusions: Evaluation of antioxidant enzymes and hepatic enzymes in the EAC animal model treated with EEST exhibited similar effects as the positive control drug 5-flurouracil. S. tenerrimum extracts contain effective antioxidants with significant antitumor activity.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.183-188
• /
• 2003

The controlled delivery of anticancer agents using biodegradable polymeric implant has been developed to solve the problem of penetration of blood brain barrier and severe systemic toxicity. This study was performed to prepare 5-FU-loaded poly (L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) wafer fabricated microparticles prepared by two different method and to evaluate their release profile for the application of the treatment of brain tumor. 5-FU-loaded PLGA microparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). SEM observation of the 5-FU-loaded PLGA microparticles prepared by rotary solvent evaporation method showed that 5-FU was almost surrounded by PLGA and significant reduction of crystallinity of 5-FU was confirmed by XRD. In case of release profile of 5-FU from 5-FU-loaded PLGA wafer fabricated microparticles prepared by mechanical mixing, the release profile of 5-FU followed near first order release kinetics. In contrast to the above result, release profile of 5-FU from 5-FU-loaded PLGA wafer fabricated microparticles prepared by rotary solvent evaporation method followed near zero order release kinetics. These results indicate that preparation method of the 5-FU-loaded PLGA microparticles to fabricate into wafers was contributed to drug release profile.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Environmental Toocicology Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.180-180
• /
• 2003

The acetylation of histone is one of the mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene expression and is tightly controlled by two core enzymes, histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and deacetylase (HDAC). There are several reports that imbalance of HAT and HDAC activity is associated with abnormal behavior of the cells in morphology, cell cycle, differentiation, and carcinogenesis. Recently, an increasing number of structurally diverse HDAC inhibitors have been identified that inhibit proliferation and induce differentiation and/or apoptosis of tumor cells in vivo and in vitro. In this study, we have investigated the effects of novel HDAC inhibitors, IN2001 on ER positive and ER negative human breast cancer cell lines. The growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of cells by HDAC inhibitors were determined using SRB assay, DNA fragmentation, and flow cytometry. We found that IN 2001 as well as Trichostatin A inhibited cell growth dose-dependently in both ER Positive and ER negative human breast cancer cell lines. The growth inhibition with HDAC inhibitors was associated with profound morphological change. The result of cell cycle analysis after 24 h exposure of IN2001 showed G2-M cell cycle arrest in MCF-7 cell and apoptosis in T47B and MDA-MB-231 cell. In summary, IN2001 has antiproliferative effect on human breast cancer cells regardless of the expression of estrogen receptor. These findings heights the possibility of developing HDAC inhibitors as potential anticancer therapeutic agents for the treatment of breast cancer.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2009

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are a promising class of anticancer agents that inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Previous report has shown that apicidin inhibited SK-OV-3 cells proliferation and down-regulation of cyclin B1 and CDK1, and up-regulation of $p21^{WAF1}$ and p27. However, the mechanism of apicidin-mediated apoptotic cell death is not clearly understood. For this study, we investigated the mechanism of apoptotic pathway induced by apicidin in human ovarian cancer cell. We found that SK-OV-3 cells treated with apicidin caused an increase in the percentage of cells in the G2/M phase, which preceded apoptosis characterized by the appearance of cells with sub-G1 population. To further investigate the mechanism of apoptosis induction by apicidin, we measured TUNEL assay, poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage, and caspase activity in SK-OV-3 cells treated with apicidin for 48 h. Apicidin significantly enhanced apoptosis as measured by TUNEL positive apoptotic cells, PARP cleavage, and increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Induction of apoptosis was confirmed by the release of cytochrome c to cytosol. Our data suggest that apicidin-induced apoptosis in SK-OV-3 cells was accompanied by caspase-3 activation and the increase in Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. These data suggest that apicidin may be effective in the treatment of ovarian cancer through activation of intrinsic apoptotic pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.509-516
• /
• 2001

Enzymes and non-enzymatic antioxidants are involved in defense of oxgen free radical intermediates in all aerobic cells. The non -enzymatic antioxidants and antioxidant enzyme from the extracts of Solanum nigrum L. known to be anticancer medicinal plant were examined in other to utilize the discovery in natural products as cancer chem-opereventive agents. The DPPH(1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radical scavening activity on plant position of Solanum nigrum L. was the highest in root, with stem, whole plant, seed, leaf and flower, at higher activities respectively. In extraction methods, the DPPH free radical scavenging activity by circulating extraction with 80 % MeOH. The DPPH activity of L6 fraction by LH-20 column chromatography showed about 6.7 times higher than that of ethyl acetate-fraction. These were identified as phenolic compounds such as 2-6-methano-3-benzazocin-11-ol, 2[1H]-phyidinethione and 2-hydroxy -5-methyl-benzaldehyde. Peroxidase(POD) and superoxide dismutase(SOD) activities of stem and root were higher than that of other plant positions and those of plant positions according to growing stage were the highest in 60 days after seeding. The numbers of isozyme pattern of POD and SOD showed 10 hands and 5 bands, respectively, especially, 8 bands of POD and 3 bands of SOC showed a difference according to plant positions.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
• /
• v.37 no.5
• /
• pp.305-309
• /
• 2007

Arsenic compounds have been used to treat various diseases including cancer in oriental medicine. Arsenic trioxide ($As_2O_3,\;Trisenox^{(R)}$) has been used for the treatment of leukemia and its anti-solid tumor activity has also been reported recently. Tetra-arsenic oxide ($As_4O_6,\;TetraAs^{(R)}$) is a newly developed arsenic compound which has shown an anticancer activity in some human cancer cell lines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-gastric cancer potential of TetraAs and to search for an agent with synergistic interaction with TetraAs against human gastric cancers. We analysed anti-proliferative effect of TetraAs when given alone and in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents such as 5-FU, paclitaxel, and cisplatin in SNU-216, a human gastric cancer cell line. The $IC_{50}$ of these 4 anti-cancer drugs ranged from 5.8 nM to $7.5\;{\mu}M$ with a potency rank of order paclitaxel>TetraAs>cisplatin>5-FU. TetraAs showed 10-fold greater potency than 5-FU and cisplatin at the same effect level of $IC_{50}$. TetraAs+5-FU and TetraAs+paclitaxel showed synergistic and additive interaction, respectively. On the other hand, TetraAs with cisplatin group appeared to be strongly antagonistic. Apoptotic population was measured and compared between single and combination treatment. The apoptotic cells for the combination of TetraAs+5-FU showed significant increase compared to single TetraAs treatment. On the contrary, TetraAs+cisplatin showed less apoptotic cells compared to TetraAs or cisplatin alone treatment. Overall, our results indicate that TetraAs can be effectively combined with 5-FU or paclitaxel, but not with cisplatin for synergistic anti-cancer effect, which warrants further evaluation using in vivo models.