Myricanol Induces Apoptotic Cell Death and Anti-Tumor Activity in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma in Vivo

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Guanhai Dai²  Yeling Tong²  Xuan Chen²  Zeming Ren²  Xuhua Ying¹  Feng Yang²  Kequn Chai¹ 

[1] Institute of Cancer Research, Zhejiang Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou 310007, China; E-Mail:;Institute of Basic Medicine, Zhejiang Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou 310007, China; E-Mails:

关键词: myricanol;    anticancer;    A549 xenograft;    immunohistochemistry;    TUNEL assay;    apoptosis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms16022717

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study explored the inhibiting effect and mechanism of myricanol on lung adenocarcinoma A549 xenografts in nude mice. Forty nude mice with subcutaneous A549 xenografts were randomly divided into five groups: high-dose myricanol (40 mg/kg body weight) group; middle-dose myricanol (20 mg/kg body weight) group; low-dose myricanol (10 mg/kg body weight) group; polyethylene glycol 400 vehicle group (1 mL/kg); and tumor model group. Nude mice were sacrificed after 14 days of treatment and the tumor inhibition rate (TIR, %) was then calculated. The relative mRNA expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2, VEGF, HIF-1α, and survivin in the tumor tissues were determined by real-time PCR. TUNEL assay was applied to determine cellular apoptosis, while IHC test was performed to detect the protein expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2, VEGF, HIF-1α, and survivin. The TIR of the three myricanol-treated groups ranged from 14.9% to 38.5%. The IHC results showed that the protein expression of Bcl-2, VEGF, HIF-1α, and survivin were consistently downregulated, whereas that of Bax was upregulated after myricanol treatment. Myricanol also significantly upregulated the mRNA expression of Bax and downregulated that of Bcl-2, VEGF, HIF-1α, and survivin in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05 to 0.001). These results are consistent with those of IHC. The TUNEL assay results indicated that apoptotic-positive cells significantly increased in the myricanol-treated tumor tissues compared with the cells of the vehicle control group (p < 0.01 to 0.001). These data suggest that myricanol could significantly decelerate tumor growth in vivo by inducing apoptosis.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.