LFG-500 inhibits the invasion of cancer cells via down-regulation of PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Cancer cell invasion, one of the crucial events in local growth and metastatic spread of tumors, possess a broad spectrum of mechanisms, especially altered expression of matrix metalloproteinases. LFG-500 is a novel synthesized flavonoid with strong anti-cancer activity, whose exact molecular mechanism remains incompletely understood. This current study was designed to examine the effects of LFG-500 on tumor metastasis using in vitro and in vivo assays. LFG-500 could inhibit adhesion, migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 human breast carcinoma cells. Meanwhile, it reduced the activities and expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 via suppressing the transcriptional activation of NF-κB rather than AP-1 or STAT3. Moreover, LFG-500 repressed TNF-α induced cell invasion through inhibiting NF-κB and subsequent MMP-9 activity. Further elucidation of the mechanism revealed that PI3K/AKT but not MAPK signaling pathway was involved in the inhibitory effect of LFG-500 on NF-κB activation. LFG-500 could also suppress lung metastasis of B16F10 murine melanoma cells in vivo. Taken together, these results demonstrated that LFG-500 could block cancer cell invasion via down-regulation of PI3K/AKT/NF-κB signaling pathway, which provides new evidence for the anti-cancer activity of LFG-500.