Tao Fangfang, Ruan Shanming, Liu Wenhong, Wang Libin, Xiong Yang, Shen Minhe
Department of Immunology and Microbiology, Basic Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Department of Medical Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
PLoS One. 2016 Dec 30;11(12):e0168892. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168892. eCollection 2016.
The compound fuling granule (CFG) is a traditional Chinese drug which has been used to treat ovarian cancer in China for over twenty years. Nevertheless, the underlying molecular mechanism of its anti-cancer effect remains unclear. In this study, microarray data analysis was performed to search differentially expressed genes in CFG-treated ovarian cancer cells. Several cell cycle and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) related genes were identified. The microarray analyses also revealed that CFG potentially regulates EMT in ovarian cancer. We also found that, functionally, CFG significantly suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence and the AKT/GSK-3β pathway is possibly involved. Additionally, the invasion and migration ability of ovarian cancer induced by TGFβ is significantly suppressed by CFG. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that CFG suppresses ovarian cancer cell proliferation as well as TGFβ1-induced EMT in vitro. Finally, we discovered that CFG suppresses tumor growth and distant metastasis in vivo. Overall, these findings provide helpful clues to design novel clinical treatments against cancer.
复方茯苓颗粒（CFG）是一种中药，在中国已用于治疗卵巢癌二十多年。然而，其抗癌作用的潜在分子机制仍不清楚。在本研究中，进行了微阵列数据分析以寻找在CFG处理的卵巢癌细胞中差异表达的基因。鉴定了几个与细胞周期和上皮-间质转化（EMT）相关的基因。微阵列分析还显示，CFG可能调节卵巢癌中的EMT。我们还发现，在功能上，CFG通过细胞周期停滞、凋亡和衰老显著抑制卵巢癌细胞增殖，并且可能涉及AKT/GSK-3β途径。此外，CFG显著抑制TGFβ诱导的卵巢癌侵袭和迁移能力。总之，我们的结果表明，CFG在体外抑制卵巢癌细胞增殖以及TGFβ1诱导的EMT。最后，我们发现CFG在体内抑制肿瘤生长和远处转移。总体而言，这些发现为设计新型抗癌临床治疗方法提供了有用的线索。
